Naruto: Weapon X
by Acaykath
Summary: Orochimaru decides that a four tailed Naruto is too dangerous and tries to erase him from existence. He ends up in the Marvel Universe where there are whole new dangers and adventures to face alongside his new friend and fellow science experiment X-23. [Arc 1 is complete. Arc 2 in planning stage]
1. 1-1 Banishment

**Arc1 - A New World**

* * *

**Summary: **Naruto ends up in a new world. With his new ally and fellow experimental subject X-23, he must build a life on the earth of the Marvel Universe while dealing with language and cultural barriers as well as a Sorcerer Supreme who wants to ensure that the demon sealed inside him never escapes.

**Notes About Changes to the Marvel Universe: **This universe is based on Marvel's Earth-616. There are a few minor changes such as an alteration to the Weapon X program which results in X-23 having a full skeleton of adamantium rather than just claws. These are mostly a direct result of Naruto's sudden appearance in the universe. Other changes are due to the fact that I am frankly not following any particular time line since it is difficult to line up when I am not having them follow any particular hero.

* * *

**Arc 1 - A New World - Chapter 1: Banishment**

* * *

Orochimaru lured Naruto away from Yamato and Sakura who were fighting Kabuto, taunting him about Sasuke. Sai had seemingly abandoned them when the fighting started. Even with three tails of Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto still couldn't land a meaningful hit. He had gone as far as cutting the snake man in half, but Orochimaru had just pulled himself together again and continued fighting as if he hadn't been injured at all. It really pissed Naruto off.

A fourth tail appeared and Naruto saw red. Naruto's skin melted away from the heat of his chakra and blood began to fill the demonic shroud. His tails lashed out wildly, each one striking the ground with the fury of one of Tsunade's heel drops. He chased the pale-faced sannin into the woods, lashing out with claws that extended from the cloak. When one strike missed, another limb or head would appear from it to swipe or snap at the target of his rage. He completely ignored the sannin's attacks, his snakes were vaporized by the chakra shroud.

Physical attacks weren't working. Naruto dug his claws into the ground and began to draw forth a ball of chakra in front of his mouth. The chakra was so dense that it appeared black. The ball kept growing until it was as large as Naruto.

Orochimaru seemed to actually be concerned. His hands were flashing through handseals at an incredible pace.

Naruto's jaw stretched and his stomach distended as he swallowed the massive ball of compressed chakra and compressed it further. His cheeks began to bulge out at the pressure of the building attack.

"Kuchiyose: Sanjuu Rashouman! (Summoning Technique: Triple Rashouman)" Orochimaru slammed his hands onto the ground. Three massive hell gates rose from the ground between him and Naruto.

The ground around Naruto was slowly being cratered by the pressure of the building attack. Naruto opened his mouth and released his first bijuudama (Tailed Beast Ball), firing it like a giant laser beam. Everything in a radius of fifty meters was vaporized as the beam shot forth at blinding speed. It struck the first gate and was barely slowed as it continued into the second. The second gate held for a few seconds before it too was utterly demolished. The third held until the very end of the blast when it too crumpled into a pile of rubble. The crater on either side of where the rashouman had been extended eight-hundred meters from Naruto's position.

Orochimaru burst from the rubble, climbing out of his own mouth like a snake shedding its skin. "I was thinking of letting you live so that you could take care of a few more of those pests from Akatsuki, but you're much too dangerous to let live with that kind of power." Orochimaru formed some seals, then swiped some blood on a sealed scroll that he threw at Naruto. "Fuuinjutsu: Ban'yuu Mutsu! (Sealing Technique: Universal Annihilation)"

An egg shaped shell of chakra exploded from the scroll until it encompassed Naruto. With a sudden pop, everything within the egg disappeared and air rushed in to fill the void.

* * *

Naruto looked everywhere for his enemy. Except for a small amount of dirt, there was only a blank emptiness of white extending in every direction. Naruto could see the edges of the dirt beginning to crumble, first to sand, then to dust, then to pinpricks of light before they completely disappeared. The whiteness seemed to be creeping in, slowly devouring everything.

Naruto began to rage. He slammed his chakra claws against the whiteness with all the force he could muster. The whole world shook. Naruto continued to pound away, gaining a fifth tail. The whiteness seemed to crack as he pounded. The cracks spread under his assault until they filled the whole sky, but no matter how hard he pounded, the shattered whiteness refused to break.

In a fit of Kyuubi-induced rage, Naruto released every ounce of chakra he had in a dome, pressing outwards against the limits of this reality. The whiteness shattered. Naruto was pulled through a suffocating tube of nothingness and was jettisoned into a freezing drift of snow.

Naruto staggered to his feet, leaving a crimson imprint in the snow from his blood. His whole body ached. Her could barely move from the pain and exhaustion. He could see the muscles of his hands where skin should have been.

"Snikt!" The sharp sound was the only warning he received before he heard a bestial roar and six blades erupted through his chest. The blades retracted. Naruto only saw the wild hair and naked body of the man who stabbed him for a few moments before he coughed up a pool of blood and passed out.

* * *

Dr. Strange was the Sorcerer Supreme, chosen by the consciousness of the planet itself. He had neatly coiffed black hair with an austere hint of silver at the temples. His clothes were green and gold. Only his green cape touched the floor as he hovered in place, meditating on the status of the world.

The mystical man was jerked into awareness as the fabric of reality was torn asunder and he felt the tremendous energies of one of the most powerful demons he had ever experienced. This demon easily rivaled the power of any of the gods, and Dr. Strange was not sure he could ever hope to match it in a straight fight.

Dr. Strange waved his hands and uttered a locating spell, but was unable to detect the demon's presence anymore, which frightened him more than the demon's presence. How powerful must a demon be if it could hide even from his magics? Dr. strange took a piece of paper and drew a magical enchantment upon it, placing a crystal needle in the center. It would alert him if the demon revealed itself, and then he would know where to find it.

* * *

Professor Thorton was bald, wearing a white lab coat as he followed the tracks of Jim 'Wolverine' Logan, or such was the man's current pseudonym. Thorton knew of Wolverine's true identity, James Howlett who was born over one-hundred years ago. The man's incredible healing and regeneration had kept him in his prime and had made him the perfect subject for the Weapon Plus program. In fact, had he not had that healing factor, he would not have survived the experiments.

Professor Thorton was followed closely by a team of guards wearing masks and camouflage fatigues patterned with whites and grays for snowy locations. They arrived at the scene of a body laying in the snow in a pool of blood.

"He's now one of ours," one of the guards reported.

The body stirred, eyes opening briefly.

"Well, look at that, his skin seems to be regrowing," Thorton remarked, "It seems that when Logan escaped, he kindly left us a replacement."

Naruto stirred, trying to move. He couldn't understand what the man in white was saying, but he didn't like the oily tone in which he said it.

"Put him down and get him to the lab."

"Fwip! Fwip! Fwip!" Darts stuck into Naruto's neck, shoulder and leg. All thought of escape were soon silenced by the drugs.

* * *

Dr. Cornelius stood, watching the monitors connected to the tank where the blond boy floated. The brainwave patters were beginning to show activity again. It had only been ten minutes since the last dose. The first time they had used that particular soporific, it had lasted for twelve hours. Now they had already quintupled the dosage and it was barely effective at all.

"We need to switch his meds again," Dr. Cornelius said, addressing Dr. Hines, "His body has completely acclimated to this one, even with the reduced oxygen levels." The drugs were fed to Naruto through a mask that covered his nose and mouth, providing him with air. The liquid he was floating in was an aqueous nutrient solution that provide the lipids and proteins needed for physical healing. It was regularly filtered to remove waste. A gruel was routinely pumped through the feeding tube in the breathing mask for sustenance. They couldn't use intravenous drugs and sustenance because the body would heal, pushing the needles out.

In some ways, his healing was even more impressive than experiment X's has been. In other ways, it was less impressive. While his healing factor had the potential to heal much faster than X, it was also dependent on his energy level. When fully rested, small cuts were healed almost instantly, but if they withheld nourishment for a few days, it would take several minutes for the same cut to heal. Like X, he seemed to be able to heal from any injury, even to the point of regenerating removed organs. When he had first arrived, his heart and lungs had both been shredded by experiment X, but he eventually recovered from that without intervention. His skin had taken much longer. It seemed that his healing factor would focus on healing the most grievous injuries first to ensure it did not run out of material and would heal him better and stronger than before to try and prevent future injury.

Dr. Hines finished attaching a new bottle of gas to the injector. Naruto's brainwaves calmed and he returned to his drug-induced catatonia.

"I just can't understand how his healing factor works. His genes obviously lack the x-gene, but there are several anomalies that I have never seen before." Dr. Cornelius checked the printout he was holding again. "He is definitely not a mutant."

"Perhaps one of the other genetic discrepancies acts in a similar way as the expression of the x-gene," Dr. Hines suggested.

"No, they are in the wrong part of his genetic code. It's like he grew up in a society isolated from the rest of the world and there was some slight genetic drift. It is not enough to classify him as anything other than a normal human."

* * *

Naruto woke up feeling cold. He was naked. Metal cuffs restrained him at the wrists, ankles and neck. He could tell the surface he was on was metallic and porous. Around him were a group of machines with long, disturbing looking, mechanized needles. He could hear something bubbling nearby. People dressed in lab coats were scurrying around seeing to various pieces of equipment, checking monitors and dials. Up above, Naruto could see the man who had been leading the team that had captured him. The smirk and gleam in his eye reminded Naruto too much of Orochimaru. Next to him was a man wearing a green suit. By all the ribbons and pins, Naruto guessed that he was some sort of military officer, though he didn't recognize the style of clothing.

"Begin," the military officer ordered.

The man beside the military officer gave a signal and a humming sound began. Naruto felt the surface he was on begin to descend into a tank of frigid oily liquid.

"Prepare the infusion devices," Doctor Thorton ordered.

A buzzing sound drew Naruto's attention to the needles that seemed to vibrate slightly. Naruto realized that they were spinning like drills. Naruto tried to struggle, but the restraints held him fast. The needles lowered. Naruto screamed in agony as they pierced his flesh until they were scraping against bone.

Another order was given and the needles heated until they were glowing red as they began to inject what felt like liquid fire into him. The red hot needles carved through his flesh like butter as they traced his bones. The needles moved slowly, giving his flesh time to close behind them. Naruto's mind became hazy from the pain. Before it could drive him to insanity, his body seemed to fade away as he escaped into unconsciousness.

* * *

Naruto snapped awake in an instant. The world was a sea of green, illuminated by lights from above and below. He could feel a mask on his face that pumped air in and out of his lungs. A long tube was shoved uncomfortably down his throat.

Naruto tried to move. His body felt heavy and sluggish. Naruto moved forward and the green oozed away around him until he was looking out into a darkened expanse of machinery. Naruto pushed against the clear barrier. It didn't feel like glass and there was no give in it.

Naruto stuck out his legs to brace himself. His legs felt as heavy and slow as his arms. They pressed against the sides of his cylindrical prison as he felt out his chakra. His chakra still flowed freely. He thought they must not have considered sealing it since they tried to keep him drugged.

His chakra gathered in his hand and began to swirl, creating a whirling current through the liquid. Only his braced legs kept Naruto from spinning out of control. The chakra formed into a ball, a rasengan, a grinding sphere of destruction invented by the fourth hokage. Naruto placed the ball against the clear material. It pushed through easily, grinding through it so fast that the material almost seemed to jump away from his hand. The liquid began pouring out of the tank, splashing down through the grated floor. Naruto moved the ball across and down, beginning to create an oval the size of his body.

Naruto held on to the material, striking it to his palm with chakra, as he finished grinding out his escape route. It wouldn't do to have all the guards come running to the sound if he let it fall. Naruto grabbed the pane of what felt like clear plastic with his other hand after he allowed the rasengan to dissipate without exploding. He turned and gently placed the sheet leaning against the opposite side of the tube before climbing out.

Naruto turned to examine the prison. As he had seen from the inside, it was a clear tube ensconced above and below with pipes and machinery. A plaque on the top held the characters 'X-11', though Naruto did not no the significance of the 'X' character, he was fairly certain that the '11' meant there were at least ten others.

Naruto unfastened the breathing mask, allowing the stench or metal, oil and other unknown chemicals assault his nose. He pulled, choking and gagging as a segmented metal tube was extracted from his esophagus. He needed a moment to recover from the retching that spilled gruel down into the shallow chasm below.

Naruto stepped forward onto a catwalk. Below was a mass of cables and pipes. He headed down the catwalk until stopped at a concrete wall. To his right was a tank marked 'X-1'. The tube was missing and groups of three slash marks were gouged into the metal of the equipment. Naruto knew this must have been where the man who had impaled him had been kept.

Naruto crossed the catwalk to the opposite side. This one had a body floating inside. The body was obviously dead. Spikes of metal sprouted from his head and chest. This one was marked 'X-2'. Naruto continued down the catwalk, checking each alcove. Some of the tubes were empty. Others held the disfigured remains of people who didn't survive. Naruto was disgusted that anyone could commit such atrocities. Some were even small children and toddlers.

Naruto looked at 'X-22'. This one was only a fetus with monstrous growths. Naruto guessed that it was some form of failed cloning experiment. He turned to 'X-23'. It was the last one. The rest of the alcoves down the catwalk to the exit hatch had no glow of monitors or lights. Inside was the naked body of a teenage girl, hooked up to the same type of breathing mask that had recently adorned his own face. She was actually very attractive. She had waist-length dark-brown hair and tanned skin much like his own and a body whose proportions roughly matched those of Ino Yamanaka. He stopped examining the naked body when he realized he was probably perving on a corpse.

Naruto was about to leave when he noticed the monitors for this one were different. There was a steady "be-beep" that he recognized from his own stays at the Konohagakure Hospital. It was a heart monitor. He could also hear the hiss of air being pumped in and out. Naruto checked the monitors and saw many squiggly lines he didn't understand, but knew were monitoring the signs of a living body. The girl, like him, had survived whatever they had done to her.

Naruto climbed up onto the tank, sticking his feet to it so that he could carve out a doorway with his rasengan. The spray of the liquid forcing itself out inhibited him, but he managed to carve out a suitable hole and drag the girl out onto the catwalk. She was heavier than he expected. The girl looked like she could not weigh more than one-hundred-ten pounds, but it felt like he was dragging an Akamichi as she obviously weighed closer to two-hundred. This probably had something to do with the metal in a lot of the dead experiments. He realized that accounted for his own feeling of weight and sluggishness as well.

Naruto sat with the girl across his lap, using his thigh to hold her at a forward angle so that she would not choke if she puked like he did while he removed the mask. As he had predicted, she gagged on the tube and threw up some of the same gray mess that this place considered food. This caused the girl to begin to stir.

"Snikt!" Naruto remembered that sound. It was the sound that preceded impalement by X-1.

Naruto dropped the girl and scurried away, narrowly avoiding the twin metal claws protruding from between the girl's fingers. The claws cut through the railing of the catwalk with a reverberating clang.

"Who are you? What are you doing with me?" the girl asked.

Naruto couldn't understand a word of what she had said. "Watashi wa anata to tatakau tame ni shitakunai. Watashi wa tedasuke shiyou to shite ita. (I don't want to fight you. I was only trying to help.)"

The foreign language caused X-23 to pause her assault, but she did not relax enough to retract her claws. Naruto tried to think of a way to explain himself. Naruto, getting an idea, moved around her to the tank and used chakra to climb until he reached the plaque.

"Anata wa, sū ni rei kara sandatta. (You were number twenty-three.)" Naruto pointed at her. Next he circled the plaque with his finger. He pointed at her again and then showed two, then three fingers. "Watashi ga jū ichidatta. (I was the eleventh.)" Naruto pointed to himself and then showed one finger twice.

Keeping an eye on him, she backed away, following the path back until she found the tank marked 'X-11'. It was plain to see that its contents had been quite recently evacuated.

"How did you escape?" X-23 asked.

Naruto just looked at her puzzled.

X-23 pointed around the edge of the hole in the tank and then shrugged and cocked her head to the side as if awaiting an answer.

Naruto understood enough that he formed a rasengan and, leaning over the railing, pushed it into the wall. When he pulled the rasengan out, concrete dust poured from the hole.

The clanking of heavy boots could be heard beyond the exit. They had made too much noise.

Naruto mimed fighting, then putting on clothes.

X-23 nodded in agreement.

Naruto ran. His footsteps louder and heavier than he would have liked. He leapt up and stuck himself above the door. He raised his finger to his lips. Naruto, using his left arm to indicate the catwalk, pointed to the door, then used his right hand to indicate walking along his left. He pointed to X-23, held ups his hands in surrender, then used his arm and hand to mimic walking backwards. Finally he pointed to himself and using his arm again, mimicked a person jumping down, then punched the air a few times.

X-23 nodded, understanding the simple plan.

The wheel on the door turned, removing the locking bolts with a dull thunk. The door swung open and a group of twelve armed men appeared. X-23 raised her hands as guns leveled at her. Naruto had never seen a gun before, bud by the way they were waving them around, Naruto assumed it was some sort of projectile launcher, like Shizune's senbon launcher, or a crossbow.

Naruto crossed his fingers and leapt. Two of him landed on each of the soldiers. One of the soldiers pulled the trigger as he fell, causing spurts of red blood to erupt from the man in front of him.

Each of the Naruto clones realized the danger of these weapons and quickly snapped the necks of the people they had landed on.

Naruto was surprised that X-23 didn't seem at all disturbed by the brutality of his attack. She merely walked forward, took one of the guns, then looted the others for ammunition. Meanwhile, Naruto selected the two shortest guards and began stripping off their clothing.

Once dressed, Naruto began dismembering the corpses, handing each severed limb to a clone, giving them orders to find a large surface to paint an exploding tag on. Naruto was no seal master, but he had spent three years with Jiraiya who had insisted he at least learn how to make basic exploding tags and sealing scrolls. One of the things he knew about exploding tags was that the bigger they were, the bigger the explosion was. He knew one the size of a lip of sealing paper blew up anything in a radius of five or ten meters. Ones the size of writing paper were known as demolition tags and could blow up a building, though it usually took two ninja to add enough chakra to prime them. The one being drawn on the ceiling was eight by fifteen feet. It would probably take all of his clone's power to prime it, but when it went off, it was sure to make an impressive explosion. Sometimes, it was good to have a demon fox in your gut.

Naruto and X-23 began to jog through the installation. Occasionally, they would run across a patrol of guards, but X-23 was amazingly accurate with the gun she had commandeered and since they were wearing the same uniform, the soldiers were dead before they realized Naruto and X-23 were not supposed to be there. Each time this happened, Naruto created more clones to paint explosive seals on the nearest large surface. With his sloppy handwriting, chances were that only one in three would work though.

The exit was a small door in the middle of a concrete wall. There were a couple guards on platforms with views out the front and eight on the ground. 'Screw subtlety!' Naruto thought. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto formed over a hundred clones that began evasive maneuvers. Some ran up walls, others began springing off equipment, and some just zigged and zagged as they kept low and rushed the guards. More than half his clones had been destroyed by the automatic weapons held by the guards before they needed to reload and the swarm was upon them. Without prompting, the clones began to create more explosive seals.

"To sugu ni, karera wa kanzendearu yō ni fūin o bakuhatsu sa seru! (Detonate the seals as soon as they are complete!)" Naruto yelled, creating more clones to stop any interruptions.

Naruto and X-23 burst out into the bright expanse of snow at the base of a mountain. A river and a waterfall were clearly audible nearby, but could not be seen beyond the dense pine forests that started eighty meters out from the entrance. Looking back, the facility was built so that only a few small protrusions were visible out of the cliff face, and those were painted to match the surrounding rock.

Before she could protest, Naruto scooped up X-23 and began to run. He felt claws scratch his skin as she grabbed on to him. Using chakra to lengthen his stride, Naruto took off as fast as he could, taking to the trees as soon as they were in range. Smaller branches snapped against their bodies, but Naruto didn't care. He needed speed right now, not stealth. The trees halted abruptly and Naruto nearly stumbled on the bank of the river. Then, he hit the water and his foot sank up to his ankle befor he adjusted for the extra weight. Three strides later, they were on the bank and naruto followed the river upstream until they came to a large dam. Naruto guessed that it was what powered the facility they had just escaped from. Naruto ran up the side of the cliff and found some shelter in a copse of trees before turning to look at the mountain housing the facility and regained his breath.

X-23 followed his gaze and waited. Eight minutes later, there was a rumble like thunder that shook the ground, then the entire face of the mountain exploded and collapsed into rubble. Naruto was a little disappointed. He had expected it to be bigger.

The next task was to prevent anyone from following them and decide which direction to go. Looking at the sun, Naruto could tell that it was early evening and that it was so cold because they were somewhere far north. Naruto drew an arrow tipped cross on the ground. In the west and east, Naruto drew a flat line with a half circle with radiating lines representing a sun with an arrow pointing up or down. In the north he drew a stylized snowflake. In the south, he drew waves and a sun.

"Wareware wa dochira no hōkō ni ikubekideshou ka? (Which direction should we go?)" Naruto asked. He covered his eyes and pointed in random directions, then shrugged.

X-23 looked at Naruto's compass and then gestured in a generally southward manner. Naruto shrugged and wiped out his drawing, then created hundreds of clones that transformed into copies of him and X-23 as well as pairs of random people, then each pair chose a random direction and started walking so no one would be able to tell what direction they went.

Naruto began walking in a southerly direction and beckoned for X-23 to follow. Now that they had a direction, it was time to start getting to know each other.

Naruto pointed to himself and said, "Watashi no namae ha Uzumaki Naruto desu. (My name is Naruto Uzumaki)" He pointed at himself again. "Uzumaki Naruto." He pointed to himself again and said, "Na-ru-to."

Understanding, X-23 repeated, "Naruto. You are called Naruto."

Naruto grinned happily. He pointed at himself and said, "Naruto." Naruto then pointed at her and shrugged.

"My name..." X-23 looked slightly disturbed by the concept.

They walked in silence for a few minutes with X-23's brow scrunched in concentration.

X-23 stopped, still looking troubled. She pointed at Naruto and said, "Naruto." She then pointed at herself and shrugged. She crouched down and wrote 'X-23' in the snow and then pointed to herself and said, "X-23."

"Ekksu-tuwanti-tsurii," Naruto repeated, keeping in mind that 'twenty' was probably 'nijuu' and 'three' was probably 'san'. He already knew 'X', that was often used as a marker on maps and diagrams.


	2. 1-2 A New Dimension

**Arc 1 - A New World - Chapter 2: A New Dimension**

* * *

Naruto stalked along the game trail, wishing he had a kunai. Through the gaps in the trees, he could see a deer foraging in the snow. Fortunately, D-rank missions, especially ones involving Tora the cat, had given him plenty of experience rounding up animals. He made two clones, making sure they stuck to trees before their feet could crunch the snow. The slight pop alerted the animal and it stopped foraging for a moment as Naruto and his clones waited until the deer relaxed. Naruto climbed a tree with all the stealth he had used to paint the Hokage monument wearing a bright orange track suit. His clones circled around. One went left and the other right. As they moved into range of the deer's nose, the animal perked up and glanced around. Both clones began to run at the deer, making plenty of noise. The deer bolted in the only direction available, right under Naruto.

Naruto dropped, landing astride the deer's back. He hooked his ankles under its forelegs from behind. He brought his elbow up under its chin and locked it in the crook of the other arm which was pinned against the back of the deer's head, grabbing the opposite bicep. Naruto held his choke, blocking both breath and blood from passing through the deer's neck. A minute later, he felt the animal's heartbeat slow, then stop. The deer was dead.

Naruto summoned six clones to carry the deer back to camp.

X-23 was waiting for him at the camp. She had used sparks from her claws to create a fire, and then cut down some pliable branches.

"Ai Gottu Diiru!" Naruto announced happily. Naruto had played the 'what is this' game every time no matter whether he didn't know or had the English word for something. With English being the only language he could communicate in, he was learning very fast.

The two of them used the branches to hang the deer by its feet before X-23 released one claw and decapitated the animal, letting the blood run out of the meat. They would not need any food for several more days.

At the camp, jobs were dished out by necessity. Anything that needed a cutting edge would be done by X-23. Anything that needed a lot of labor would be done by Naruto. It seemed to be a fair arrangement.

Naruto began preparing their shelter for the night. This involved grinding a pair of symmetrical slots in adjacent pairs of trees, He would then find strong branches and grind them down to an appropriate length and slot them in. He would then scoop all the snow out and then cover the ground with a thick bed of pine needles. He would then lay branches all around and on top until it was a solid wall and ceiling. Next, he would gather snow and bury the whole thing, creating a little igloo where they could huddle together for warmth at night. With the proper application of clones, this process only took him about an hour.

* * *

X-23 signaled for Naruto to stop, cocking her head to the side. Her senses were much more acute than his.

Then Naruto heard it, a soft crunching of snow as someone tried sneaking up on them. Naruto turned and lashed out with a punch as the largest, hairiest man he had ever seen leapt at them. The man grabbed him by the wrist and swung him into a tree.

X-23 unleashed her claws with a loud 'snikt' and attacked.

"So, you take after Wolverine," the man said, dodging her claws and jamming the claws at the ends of his fingers into her gut. "Thing is, I've beaten Wolverine, over and over again."

X-23 kicked out, surprising their attacker with a claw out of her boot, slashing his thigh.

"So, the little girl has her own tricks?" the man asked sarcastically as his wound closed itself, "But that doesn't matter to me!" He swiped out with his claws, tearing out X-23's throat. "I know that won't kill you, but ti should give me time to finish your friend."

Naruto leaps at their attacker with a rasengan in hand. The man side stepped, then rammed his head into Naruto's nose, shattering the cartilage.

"Who you are? Why you is attack us?" Naruto demanded.

"The name is Sabretooth, and I'm just doing my job, returning a couple stray children to where they belong."

"Wareware wa, ninshishō no basho ni modotte iku koto wa arimasenda, kono yarō! (We're never going to go back to that demented place, you bastard!)" Naruto yelled, forgetting to translate his statement in his rage. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Whether one or one-hundred, Naruto found he could not land an effective blow on the mutant. He may not have had a metal skeleton, but in this case it was an advantage. The man had enhanced senses and was used to fighting with his current bulk. The clones were quickly dealt with.

By now, X-23 had healed and was back in the fight, a whirling dervish of blades. Sabretooth spotted an opening and darted in, punching X-23 in the throat, crushing her larynx. He then slammed her head into the ground and then stomped on her stomach, forcing the air out of her lungs.

Naruto tackled Sabretooth off of his friend. He was thrown off with a rolling kick as they hit the ground.

Sabretooth came out of his roll and landed on his feet. "You know, they promised me a set of them fancy metal bones if I could bring you in."

Naruto leapt to his feet just in time to see Sabretooth's claws tear gouges of flesh from his face before he was sent flying back by a powerful stomp kick to his chest. Naruto was dazed for a moment, then wiped the blood from his eye. Naruto regained his feet and senses just in time to see X-23 slammed into a tree, impaling a broken tree branch through her eye.

Naruto growled. The air became heavy with killing intent. Sabretooth turned from X-23 to look into Naruto's red slitted eyes. "Is no you only with claws!" Naruto growled as a tail of chakra burst out behind him. He dashed forward, much faster than before, and slashed with a claw of chakra, raking Sabretooth from shoulder to hip. Sabretooth blocked the followup strike with his forearms, leaving them a bloody mess.

"Looks like you have some more tricks up your sleeve," Sabretooth grunted as he took a few steps back.

A sickening squelch signaled X-23 removing herself from the tree where she had hung by her eye socket. Her eye remained where it was so X-23 severed the connecting tissue so it could start growing back. She looked a little bit shaky, but she wasn't the only one.

Sabretooth had stopped looking at Naruto with contempt and now looked at him with terror as he realized that whatever the kid had done, it wasn't healing. In fact, the wounds were getting worse, like they were being eaten away by a slow acid. As Naruto formed a glowing red rasengan, Sabretooth decided it was time to retreat.

* * *

Dr. Strange noticed an odd humming sound just as he was about to sit down and enjoy a good book. With the many magical devices in his home, it took several minutes to find the one alerting him. It was a sheet of paper and a crystal, part of a locating spell. It took a moment before he remembered the dimensional incursion and the demonic presence he had sensed some years ago.

Dr. Strange activated the tracer and received the last known coordinates of the demonic energies. The crystal had spun to point about thirty degrees North of West and the distance was measured at about five thousand kilometers.

Dr. Strange consulted a map and found the location was somewhere in the Canadian Rockies. He gathered his belongings and teleported.

* * *

Dr. Strange found a scene of carnage when he arrived. There were sprays of blood littering the snow. Strips of flayed flesh only added to the gore. A lone eyeball was impaled on a tree branch. After reviewing the scene of horror, Strange was both surprised and relieved to find that three sets of footprints arrived and three left. Despite the carnage, no one had been killed. Surprisingly, the demon wasn't the one who'd left on their own. Perhaps it was one of the rare few who just wanted to be left in piece and someone else had attacked. That trait, however, was only common in the lower tier of demons. This one was terribly powerful.

Dr. Strange began following the footsteps of the demon and its ally, using the cape of levitation to hover over the snow so it wouldn't hear him coming.

* * *

Naruto and X-23 knew they were in luck when they came upon a small town a few hours after the end of their fight with Sabretooth. They had lost a lot of nutrients with so much blood spilled, and not everything could be replenished with meat. The town was not so much a group of houses, but rather cabins. There was a single general store in the center. Naruto jumped X-23 to the roof of the cabin opposite the store. He could see that the selection was limited, but there were some nice fresh-looking apples in a basket. Naruto formed a single clone and had it transform into an apple. When someone entered the store, the clone disappeared in a small puff of smoke, replaced a blink later with a real apple from the basket. The clone could wait until no one was around before dispelling so no one would know what had happened.

* * *

Dr. Strange turned himself invisible when he heard the shuffling footsteps ahead. He was surprised to see two teenagers in slashed up military fatigues. He watched them as they approached a town and the boy carried the girl onto a rooftop.

Dr. Strange glided up and watched the boy use some strange, but impressive, magics just to steal an apple. The girl then revealed that her body housed some impressive looking hidden blades. The boy didn't even flinch as she sliced the apple in two almost-even pieces. The boy gave the girl the larger of the two.

Dr. Strange was surprised. From this distance, it was easy for him to sense hints of demonic power in the boy, yet he acted like a gentleman. Perhaps it was one of the cases where a demon became infatuated with an attractive woman. Either way, despite their abilities, they were not acting overly aggressive, so Dr. Strange decided to reveal himself.

"You know, it is not polite to steal," Dr. Strange said, keeping enough distance that he would not appear hostile.

The two turned to him, taking defensive stances.

"What you say?" the boy asked. For a moment, Strange thought that this demon might be some sort of powerful halfwit. "Me English no good yet."

"Why shouldn't we take it. We require the nutrients from the fruit. We cannot sustain ourselves with just meat."

Strange thought for a moment. It was odd. The demon had morals and the human relied solely on self-serving logic. He would have expected the opposite. The boy seemed to grasp what they were talking about now.

"We run. No... Ryo... Big fight with Sabretooth. He try take us back. He run, but we hurt and need food. Would give ryo if had." The boy flushed with embarrassment.

"Money," the girl corrected.

Dr. Strange looked at the boy for a moment and decided to trust him for now. He took out his wallet and handed Naruto two dollar bills. "This is money from America, but they should accept it." He handed the money to Naruto.

The boy leapt off the roof, his clothes suddenly transforming into garb similar to what the locals wore, but different enough to show he was from out of town. He walked into the store and grabbed another apple from the basket. He walked up to the cashier, showed the apple, put the two bills on the counter then walked out.

Dr. Strange was preparing to give the boy a lecture on stealing when the apple in his hand disappeared in a poof of smoke. He realized that the boy had carefully purchased the fake that he had replaced the real one with. It allowed him to both pay for the apple and hide the fact that he had done anything wrong in the first place.

Dr. Strange turned to the girl. "You said that it was alright to take the apple because you needed it."

The girl nodded.

"What if someone else was hungry and took the apple from you before you could eat it?" Strange suggested.

"I would fight them and take the apple back," the girl replied immediately.

"And, if the person who took it is stronger than you?"

"Take another," she replied, this answer a little harder.

"What if the one you stole was the last one?" Strange continued.

"I would get Naruto to help me take it back."

"Work together! Many little can win against one big!" Naruto announced. He had learned his lesson in Kakashi's bell test.

"And what if the person you stole from has more friends than you and comes to take their apple back?"

"Play dead and then kill them in their sleep," Laura said after weighing the options.

"Or you could just not steal the apple, instead find a way to earn it. Did you even think to ask if anyone in this town would be willing to feed you, or perhaps pay you to work for them?"

"Sabretooth near. No time for stop," Naruto interrupted.

"Everyone always has excuses, that doesn't make things right." Dr. Strange though for a moment. "What if Sabretooth had captured you and took you to this place you were running from and they gave you a choice. You could help them keep the other and be free or you can refuse and have to fight your own way out at the risk of being captured." Dr. Strange posed an altered form of the prisoner's dilemma.

"Lie," X-29 replied, "Tell them I will help, then work together to escape."

"If you do bad things you bad. If you betray, you more bad," Naruto said, "You strong only when guard people here!" Naruto put a hand over his heart.

"Yes. Everyone needs to work together. If one person hurts others, they may be better off for now, but everyone will turn against that person and they will have less than they started with. Cooperation may only get you small gains, but in the long term, you end up with more."

"Is like man named Gato. He do bad things, make more money, kill people who try stop him. town give money for shinobi. Gato try to stop, but we kill Gato and many bad men. Now, town happy and have more money." Naruto liked the philosophy of peace through cooperation. Every once in a while, a bad person might appear, but working together, that person can be dealt with and peace can continue. It was certainly better than the lies and backstabbing that constituted peace among the hidden villages.

Strange nodded. It was a common enough story.

"You know where Hi no Kuni? Place named for fire. Has town of Shinobi. Is my town."

"I am not sure where you came from. But it wasn't from this dimension. Your country does not exist here." Noticing, Naruto's confused look, he drew a circle in the snow, a little mountain, and three stick figures. On the other side of the circle, he drew a small house. He showed an arrow going from the house. To one of the stick figures. "My home. My town. Very far." He spread out his hands to give the impression of a long distance. Then he drew another circle, and a line between the two and a little house. "Your home." He drew an arrow through the barrier. "Go anywhere you want, but it will not take you back to your home.

Naruto frowned. Then, he seemed to have an idea. He bit his thumb and drew some blood, then performed some hand signs before slamming his hand onto the roof and releasing a large amount of energy. "Ninpou: Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Magical symbols spread from his hand, but after a small puff of smoke, nothing happened.

After Strange thought for a moment, he was fairly certain that it was some form of summoning technique. He drew a third circle above the other two. He drew a stick figure on Naruto's home, then a line going from Naruto's home to the new world, then back towards the stick figure on Naruto's home. He drew another stick figure riding the line back. From the Naruto stick figure, he drew a line that bounced from the third world to the second rather than back to the first. "Your spell brings something from one place to another, but you are not in the right place where the thing will be brought to."

Naruto groaned. "Gamakichi will no like kuchiyose with no me and no Jiraiya." He obviously understood. "How is you knowing I is come from here and no here." Naruto pointed to the second then the first circle.

"I am the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. It is my job to know when dangers from other planes and other dimensions come here."

Naruto didn't seem to understand. "Is way of make kuchiyose work here?"

"It is possible. If you can change the coordinates of the summoning, you can change the destination."

"So is yes?"

Dr. Strange shrugged, "Maybe yes, maybe no."

Naruto sighed.

Dr. Strange thought for a moment. "It occurs to me that we haven't be properly introduced. My name is Doctor Steven Strange. Most people refer to me as Dr. Strange."

"I is Uzumaki Naruto. You is name me Naruto."

"X-23," the girl said.

Naruto looked sad. "She is no has name. In place we run from, place I was is X-11. Her place was is X-23."

Strange wondered what type of place they had run from. It sounded like it was either a prison or some place performing illegal human experiments. But, they were no longer there and there were more topics to discuss.

"The reason I came here was because I sensed the presence of a demon," Dr. Strange explained. At Naruto's complete lack of understanding, he added, "A monster. A very strong bad thing inside you." Understanding and fear filled the boy's features.

"Is Kyuubi," Naruto said, "More strong than any other bijuu." He drew a large animal of some type, adding nine wavy tails. "Is very big." He put a small dot near the foot. "This big is person. It is attack my town when is my first day. Many, many is dead. Leader of town is make Kyuubi in Naruto stomach. The... spell... is making leader of town dead too. I is can use strength of Kyuubi, but is more hard with more power. If I have power of four tail can no control, kill everything. Kyuubi power is make more angry. More angry make more power."

Dr. Strange considered what he heard. The village leader had used a sacrificial technique to seal the demon into Naruto. Naruto could use the power, but at the risk of losing control of himself.

"I have some experience with using demonic powers. I may be able to help you control your abilities."

Naruto looked at Dr. Strange shrewdly. "What is you want if you is help."

"I will just ask that you use your abilities for good." Dr. Strange answered.

Naruto glanced toward X-23. Noticing his glance, she shrugged, leaving the decision to him.

"If I is go with you, X-23 is go with you," Naruto said.

Dr. Strange nodded. "Take my hands. I will bring us to my home."

The two teenagers each took a hand and the three disappeared.


	3. 1-3 Welcome to Earth

**Arc 1 - A New World - Chapter 3: Welcome to Earth**

* * *

Naruto was impressed. The Sanctum Sanctorum of Dr. Strange was the exact picture of what a magic user's home should look like. There were crystal balls, mysterious tomes, and more glowing, pulsing, and humming items than Naruto could count. It was also big, very big. Sometimes, it was almost like the size was changing to suit the needs of the room. A moving image of a swirling something on a backdrop of twinkling stars drew Naruto's attention.

"The Milky Way Galaxy. Sometimes, when you have so much power, you need to remember how small you really are in the grand scheme of things." Dr. Strange waved a glowing hand and muttered some unintelligible words. The picture zoomed in on one of the spiraling arms, then a single star, a single planet, a single continent, a single country, a single city, a single district, a single building, then Naruto found himself looking at his own face. When Dr. Strange turned away from the image, it zoomed back out until it showed the swirling galaxy again.

"Sugoi, (Amazing,)" Naruto muttered.

"Now, I suppose it would behoove us to get better acquainted." Dr. Strange sat on a comfortable looking overstuffed wing chair. "Please make yourselves comfortable."

Naruto chose a leather recliner. X-23 stretched and reclined on a fainting couch. The smirk on Dr. Strange's face told Naruto that he was barely refraining from making a joke about it.

"I'd appreciate it if you took your boots off before putting them on the furniture, or at least before the snow melts."

X-23 shrugged and began unlacing the boots.

"I suppose I should start. My name is Steven Strange. I was once a doctor, a renowned neurosurgeon, before I was in a car accident and damaged my hands. I could still be a consultant but, because of my pride, I could never be satisfied not doing the work myself. I grew depressed and began looking to other sources for healing, even magic.

"I came to know of a man who was called the Ancient One. He was over one thousand years old, and it was said that he could heal what even the best doctors thought to be impossible. I went on a journey and found the man, but he refused to heal me and offered to teach me instead. I thought perhaps that he was a fraud, but due to a blizzard, I was given the chance to witness magic due to the betrayal of one of his disciples. Because of this, I became embroiled in the fight and accepted the Ancient One's offer.

"He had seen within me the potential to succeed him in his position as Sorcerer Supreme of Earth when none of his other apprentices had the potential. I studied under him for many years and he taught me to channel the powers of gods, demons, and even the power of the earth. I even learned to face death freeing me from the ravages of time and age. I faced many monsters, both human and otherworldly. One day a powerful demon enacted a plan to use the Ancient One as his method of coming to this realm. My master forced me to slay him and in death passed on the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme to me.

"The Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, is a bit of a misnomer. My area of responsibility is not just this planet but this dimension. Due to the natural potential humans have in the mystic arts, however, there has not been a Sorcerer Supreme known that did not call Earth their home, though in other dimensions that is not the case. The Sorcerer Supreme is appointed and empowered by a group of gods known as the Vishanti. With the position, comes a rather impressive library of mystical texts and a hoard of some of the most powerful and dangerous magical artifacts in existence. It is the duty of the Sorcerer supreme to protect the entire dimension from mystic threats. That is not to say that I must step in every time a two bit thug learns a useful spell, but when mystics, demons, or extra-dimensional entities try to conquer, slaughter, or enchant a particularly dangerous artifact. For example, if your demon ever succeeded in escaping, it would be my duty to try and seal or banish it, and, if necessary, you."

Dr. Strange let out a sigh and sank back in his chair. "Now, Naruto, why don't you tell us about yourself and where you came from?"

Naruto thought for a moment. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, Shinobi no Konohagakure no Sato. I is liking ramen and people I is liking. I is no liking people who is think they is better than people because they is... close... having blood of people. I is also not liking people who is not liking people they not know or who is not liking people for something they is not doing. I is... was... wanting to be Hokage, be leader to protect people, even if I is not liking them all.

"I is born day Kyuubi is attacking Konoha. Yondaime Hokage is strong shinobi and is saving town. He is putting Kyuubi in me. I is not having tou-san or kaa-san. I is put in home for others without. There are many with no tou-san or kaa-san."

"Father and mother. Your parents," Strange interjected.

"Many is dead from Kyuubi. The people in that home is sometimes not giving me food. They is doing nothing when my food is taken or I is being hurt. One time I went in town. When I is coming back, I is being told not to go in. I is sleeping outside. I is eating from... things behind food houses."

"You were eating the trash from restaurants?"

Naruto nodded. "Is birthday again. Big omatsuri because of Hokage beating fox. The people is seeing me. New omatsuri game is created, the fox hunt. They is hurting me very bad. I is almost dead when ANBU is taking me to healing house. I is put in bed and people is not healing me. One time every day, they is bringing food, but food has bad things in it.

"Now, new ANBU is to protect me. He is not finding me in house for people without parents. He is telling Hokage. Hokage is angry. I is being found when trying to eat. Hokage is more angry. Hokage is watching as I is being healed. He is finding a place with much broken and not many people in homes. He is buying place for me. He is seeing me and giving money. I can eat only ramen because not many places sell to me. Things take many more money for me. If it is two money of others, it is five or ten for me.

"I is go to gakuin no shinobi. I is learning there how to do chakra and do jutsu. Kyuubi is making me making much chakra. I is having too much chakra for use bunshin jutsu. I is not becoming shinobi three times. I is being told by person who making me no become shinobi that there is a way to become shinobi. He is making me steal jutsu from hokage. I is do one then he is try kill me. I is told about Kyuubi. I is beating him and is being shinobi.

"I is given nakama and sensei. My nakama is no liking me when we begin. Is not good. We do much tasks and I is learn much and is being stronger. Sasuke, ono nakama, is go to being nakama of bad man. He is trying kill me, but I is try for saving him. I is being give task for finding Sasuke with new sensei and new nakama. We is fighting bad man, Orochimaru. He is making me being much angry. I use much much of Kyuubi power. Orochimaru is doing jutsu. I is in white place is like in tamago." Naruto mimed cracking an egg.

"An egg," Strange supplied.

"Is all white. Is being smaller. I hit. White is broke a little. I use all Kyuubi power and fall in snow. I is being stab through chest." Naruto pointed to six points. "No can move. Many men come. Men use gun and I is being sleeping. I is being hurt and men is putting things inside everywhere. I is waking in tube. I is running. X-23 is only not dead. I is taking X-23. We is running and you is finding us."

"Interesting. You broke through the barrier of a temporary reality pocket and was dropped into a random dimension. This means that your dimension is probably relatively close to this one."

"You can is be finding?" Naruto asked.

"Close is very relative. I meant one of the few billion closest realities. If you were willing to wait a few millennia, I might be able to find it."

"There is many many much close?" Naruto asked.

Dr. Strange nodded.

"Kuso!" Naruto cursed.

"If I can determine the location of your summoning world, it might be possible for you to return from there. It depends on how your summoning works. Some can be adjusted, and others have very fixed methods of travel. The more adjustable the technique is, the better chance I have of helping you retarget it. From what I saw, however, it will be difficult if not impossible since I think it uses a blood anchor and a an intersecting dimension. If this is the case, it may not even be possible if not in your home world."

"I is not knowing. I is shown jutsu and I is doing same. I is not being told how it is being done."

"We can discuss it later, when the language is not such a barrier. X-23, why don't you tell us about yourself."

"I don't remember anything before Naruto took me out of the tube. I know English. I know many forms of fighting, both armed and unarmed, and military strategy and tactics. I know how to kill and disable a human. I feel like some is missing, like I should know more, not like I have forgotten but like I haven't been taught it yet."

"That is troubling. There are many things you need to know to survive in society. I suppose we should cover the basics first. This will help Naruto as well.

First, this country is called the United States of America. This is often shortened to U.S.A, U.S., or just America. It was founded on three principles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Our laws generally support these goals including freedom of the press and freedom of speech. You cannot be punished for expressing your opinion, as long as you do it in such a way as it does not harm others. Everyone has the right to live, unless they threaten to take the lives of others. For example, if someone enters your property without permission, tries to harm you, or tries to steal from you, you are allowed to take any reasonable measure to protect yourself, including using weapons or harming them. Likewise, if you do the same, you are risking the same." Dr. Strange punctuated his explanations with simple illusions for Naruto's benefit. "You will find that most things will be fairly obvious. For example, cars have the right of way, so look both ways before crossing the street. Green, or sometimes white, means go." Dr. Strange showed pictured of traffic lights. "Red means stop. Yellow means to be cautious.

"We have different enforcement agencies for various fields. We have military, which handle external threats." He showed a picture of a man in a green uniform. "Then we have various special services to counter threats like spying and terrorism and events local authorities aren't equipped to handle." For this, he showed a man in a black suit. "Then we have state police. You generally won't have any interaction with them. They police areas where there is not enough population for a local police station and for enforcing state laws and boundaries." For this, he showed a man in a tan uniform. "Then, there are local police. They enforce laws and are there to protect average citizens. You should do anything they say if they are not asking you to break any laws." He showed a man in a blue uniform and a black and white car with lights on the top. "They also have special operations units that are specially trained for combat." He showed a man in riot gear and a black armored truck. "Or, for handling explosive devices." He showed a man with thick armor. "Then you have firefighters who deal with putting out fires." He showed a man in a red hardhat and yellow coat and a long red truck with ladders on the sides. "And for emergency medical situations." He showed a man in a blue uniform next to a white truck with a red plus sign on it.

"Any questions?" Dr. Strange asked. When he didn't receive a response, he continued, "These two books should help you if you think of anything." He wave a hand and a fat black book floated onto a coffee table. "This is a concise summary of the laws of this country." Another, much smaller, book floated down. "This is a driver's handbook. It will tell you the correct method of driving a vehicle, even if most people do not follow it to the letter. It is better to be vigilant and assume people will do things wrong than to get splattered across the road." He paused for a moment, then waved his hand again. Two more books floated down and landed on Naruto's lap. "One is a dictionary. It will give you definitions of words. The other is a thesaurus. It will tell you what words can mean the same thing."

Naruto looked at the size of the two books and frowned.

"I don't expect you to read them cover to cover. But, if you see or hear a word you don't recognize, this will let you find out their meanings."

Naruto opened the dictionary to a random page. "I is no can read this," Naruto complained.

"I will teach him," X-23 offered.

Naruto grinned happily and scratched the back of his head.

"Now, I know you both have healing abilities. And X-23 has claws. So you have any other powers or skills?" Dr. Strange asked.

"I know how to use several forms of martial arts. I know how to use knives, swords, singular and twin staves, handguns, sub and regular machine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, explosives, missiles, motorcycles, cars, trucks, boats, planes, and helicopters. I know first aid and emergency field medicine. I know English, Spanish, French, and I am supposed to know German, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, and Latin, but I don't have any vocabulary for them. I am supposed to know international law." She continued thinking for a bit. "I know calculus and geometry, physics, chemistry, and biology. I am supposed to know literature. I believe that is everything."

"Yes, it definitely sounds like they were using a telepath to create you. They told the telepath what your mind would eventually contain, and they ordered it for you, but you escaped before they brought in everyone they were going to copy information into you from," Strange deduced, "Though it is probably good that Naruto rescued you when he did. Once your knowledge base was formed, they probably would have started with behavioral patterns, starting with absolute obedience to their wills. And you, Naruto?"

"I is knowing how to being shinobi. I is can throw kunai and shuriken. I is can fight. I is can use chakra. With chakra I can is walk on water and walls." Naruto demonstrated by flipping to land on the ceiling. "I is can use chakra for being strong and fast. I is can do jutsu. Henge." Naruto transformed into Dr. Strange. Then he smirked. "Oiroke no jutsu." Naruto transformed into a girl with only a few wisps of smoke covering her modesty. He was surprised when X-23 blushed and Dr. Strange just raised an eyebrow. "Dr. Strange is no hentai, or is much, much hentai," Naruto said, canceling the jutsu. He dropped to the floor. "Kawarimi," Naruto said, replacing himself with a wooden chair. "Kage Bunshin." There were now two of him.

"You said earlier that you couldn't do bunshin," Dr. Strange interrupted.

"Is kage bunshin. Bunshin is like you is doing police. Is no there, just see there. Takes little little chakra. I is being big, big, big, chakra."

"What is chakra precisely?" Strange queried.

"Make body strong. Make head strong. Head and body together is make chakra," Naruto explained. "All life is having chakra. If you no use when little, you is not ever getting big chakra. Is becoming hard and is not being made big." He paused for a moment. "I is can kuchiyose: Gama. Is not working here." He demonstrated the technique anyway, summoning only smoke. "Shunshin." Naruto appeared on the opposite side of the room. "Is no for fight. Is always straight. Can no stop. Can no turn. Can no see. When is stopping, is being need find me. Is for running, or is for being sugoi." He held out his hand. "Rasengan. Is being strong justu. I is being making rasengan stronger." Narutos clone hopped over and helped Naruto expand the rasengan until it was as big as he was. "Oodama Rasengan!" Naruto grinned. "Is can be breaking through big rock, then is letting go and is big bakuha." Naruto let the jutsu dissipate harmlessly. "Boom!" Naruto and his clone jumped back to show the size of the explosion.

"Some of your techniques. You were doing something with your hands." Dr. Strange said.

"Shirushi. Is making jutsu much more easy. Is making chakra being in special way. Jutsu is being much, much hard for no shirushi. No shirushi is much much much time to learn. Nidaime Hokage is using suiryuudan. Is liking jutsu much much. Is taking yon juu yon," Naruto held up the number four twice, "Shirushi when start. When is being dead, is still using one shirushi. He is being more good than all people for suiryuudan."

"Is that everything?" Dr. Strange asked.

"I is knowing little fuuinjutsu. Is needing..." Naruto grabbed one of the books and selecet a single page. "This."

"Paper," Dr. Strange said. He waved a hand and paper and a various writing implements appeared.

Naruto smiled happily as he grabbed the brush, ink, and an inkwell. He poured some ink into the ink well, then bit his thumb, allowing a few drops of blood to drip into the ink before mixing it with the paintbrush. He carefully split one piece of paper in half by folding then tearing. Then, he quickly began painting. "Is good having ink. Less blood is needed. I is being seeing Ero-sennin being making fuuinjutsu where is needing ink because is little blood for big fuuinjutsu. If I is being eating, I is not being little blood." He finished the tag and let his clone start on the second piece of paper.

Naruto handed the completed seal to Dr. Strange. "Is being kabaku fuda. Is putting chakra. One. Two. Three. Boom." Naruto jumped back eight feet. "Boom is big if paper is big." He went back to where Strange was sitting. "If is being big," Naruto gestured with his hands a size about the same as a legal sheet of paper. "Boom" Naruto jumped back and landed almost forty feet away by the far wall.

"Yes. I have seen similar sealing and script techniques."

Naruto's clone handed him the completed seal, then dispelled. "Is a putting fuinjutsu." Naruto piled the writing implements on the seal and focused chakra into the seal. All the writing implements disappeared. Focusing chakra again, they came back."

"Interesting. That technique must be similar to the one that ended up sending you here."

"Is not can be using on people. Is no time, but people is having chakra. Chakra is keeping time and people is becoming dead."

Dr. Strange nodded. There were many techniques that only affected inanimate matter. He would need to do more investigation of chakra. Dr. Strange stood and walked to one of the bookshelves. "On these two shelves are my reference materials for this type of spell. You may read them if you like. You may be able to learn some new techniques.

"Eh... Arigatou..." Naruto said a little flatly. It was not that he didn't appreciate the offer, but he had always learned better by doing than through books. He was never a fan of books. Of course, that could be because he had not been taught to read much more than the Ichiraku menu until after he had started the academy and had complained to the third hokage about all the extra readings that he couldn't do. After that, Weasel, Dog, and Neko had each shown up a few times a week during their protection shifts to work on it with him. He had still never gotten as good as his classmates. A good portion of his three year training trip had been calligraphy training so that he could write well enough to actually create seals.

"Well, now that we know each other better, I suppose I should show you how this place works. It can be confusing if it is you're new."

Dr. Strange led Naruto and X-23 through the building, pointing out the clues to recognize trick corridors, illusory walls, and booby traps. He eventually ended up at a pair of rather plain bedrooms that were opposite each other. They each had a wooden dresser, a mirror, a queen-sized bed, and a small closet. On each door was a bronze plaque.

"Wipe some blood on the plaque," Dr. Strange instructed. When they did, their names appeared embossed on the metal. "That should help you find your rooms if you get lost."

From there, Dr. Strange led them to a fairly standard kitchen, if you did not count the fact that there was a large fireplace set up to boil a cauldron over. He showed them where to find the usual dishes, utensils, spices, and common food items. Naruto didn't recognize anything except a few of the vegetables, eggs, rice, salt and milk.

"Is there ramen?" Naruto asked.

"I don't eat the stuff. It is quite unhealthy. If you want some, I know of an Asian restaurant nearby that sells some soups you could try once you find a source of money. Or you can buy the instant stuff from any supermarket."

X-23 looked just as lost in the ramen-free kitchen as Naruto did, but then, the sum total of her cooking experience was impaling meat on a stick and holding it over a fire.

"If you want to learn, you'll just need to help out when it comes time to prepare meals."

"Clones can be making clean," Naruto suggested. He didn't want to just be a freeloader.

"Thank you, Naruto. I'll tell you whenever I have a boring task that no one wants to do," Dr. Strange said with a smirk. "Next, I will show you how to get in and out. If you don't know how to get in, all you will find is an empty building."

This process was fairly simple, just approach the door and perform a certain pattern with the knocker if your blood had been added to a small brass bowl hanging above the inside of the entrance. If you did, then you would be teleported in. Guests could be brought in by opening the door from the inside which was the same process for leaving.

"Now, why don't you familiarize yourself with the city for a few hours before dinner time while I make some preparations."


	4. 1-4 With Great Power

**Arc 1 - A New World - Chapter 4: With Great Power**

* * *

Naruto couldn't help but be impressed. The tallest buildings in Konoha were actually of fairly average height for the suburbs of New York, once downtown, however, the buildings put many mountains to shame. While he had seen motorized vehicles before, such as the train in the land of snow, this place was packed with them. The level and proliferation of technology was obviously much higher in some areas, though their wearable technology seemed to be in short supply or ridiculously large, most likely due to power issues since chakra was unknown here.

There was a loud popping sound, then a ringing from a large building across the street.

"What was that?" Naruto asked.

"Some sort of small-caliber handgun," X-23 replied. Shouts of terror could now be heard. "Some sort of altercation is occurring.

Naruto looked around. "I no see police. We help?" Naruto didn't wait for an answer, already darting through traffic. X-23 followed. Several cars honked their owner's agitation as they were forced to slow down and avoid the two.

Inside the building the alarm was coming from, there were five men standing around. Four were dressed all in black with balaclavas covering their faces. Each of them was carrying a gun. The last man was bulky with brown hair and a green striped shirt. This man was obviously the leader of the thugs.

There were a group of men in a corner that were wearing suits that resembled those of police officers, which Naruto correctly assumed were the building's security. They were all either unconscious or dead as they lay unmoving in a pile. One of the masked men had his weapon pointed at a group of civilians and employees that were all laying face down on the floor with their hands on their heads. The leader was talking to a thin, gray-haired man in a suit.

"You're gonna open the vault for me and the boys, or else Jimmy over there is going to start reducing your customers one by one," the man threatened.

"The money vault is on a time lock. I can't open it except at specific times without the codes of the other managers and only one of us is in each day unless there's an emergency. You've already emptied the petty cash safe and that's all we can possibly give you."

"Jimmy, whack one," the criminal ordered.

Naruto leapt into action. He burst through the glass doors with a crash, drawing the attention of the criminals. The glass was a lot more difficult to shatter than he had anticipated, the whole pane was webbed with cracks before it fell as a whole sheet. The frame had given way, not the glass. One of the masked men fired in his general direction, but Naruto was regaining his footing after a shoulder roll to recover from breaking in and the bullets did not come near him. Naruto came to a stop near a island counter with various slips of paper as well as some pens that were chained to it. He heard the crackling of the glass as X-23 followed him in and headed in the opposite direction.

All the masked men were opening fire at them now. Naruto ripped one of the pens from its chain and whipped it at Jimmy who was turning back to threaten the hostages again. The pen struck the man in the throat. It did not have enough power to penetrate, but it caused the man to choke long enough for Naruto to cross the room and slam his fist into Jimmy's temple. Jimmy was sent tumbling, slamming the other side of his head into a teller's station before crumpling to the floor.

X-23 dashed across the room, sliding between two men, causing one to accidentally shoot the other in the crossfire. It was only a flesh wound, but it would slow the man down. She regained her feet and shoulder tackled a third man who was unprepared for the amount of weight the light-looking girl had. She grabbed him by the shirt and rolled to her feet, sending him sliding into the injured man's ankles. A staccato burst of gunfire marked a line of fiery pain that slammed into her back.

Naruto could see X-23 had the other three occupied, so he focused on the leader. He dashed forward and swung his fist at the robber's center of mass. To his surprise, the man did not even try to dodge, he just stood there as Naruto's fist passed through him and became stuck.

"Who are you? Some new guy in the spider's territory?" The man chuckled as Naruto stuck his feet to the man's chest and tried to pull his hand out. "Well, fresh meat like you won't last long against the Sandman!" To Naruto's surprise, the man's fist changed into a large mace and crashed into Naruto's head, breaking him free.

"Suna..." Naruto said in surprise, brushing the tan granules from his hand. "Is like Shukaku." Naruto remembered the trouble he had during the Suna-Oto invasion. That raccoon had been impossible to hurt. If it hadn't been for having the weak spot of Gaara sticking out of its head, Naruto doubted he could have won that fight.

X-23 did a back handspring, unleashing her foot claw, slamming it down through the wrist of the hand holding the sub-machine gun. The man's hand went limp as his tendons were severed and he dropped the gun. Using the wrist as leverage, she jammed her other heel into the man's chin before reversing her handspring, smashing her foot down on the back of the neck of the man who had been tripped by the one she had thrown. With all the men with guns down, she took a moment to stretch her shoulders, the movement helping the bullets to be pushed out by the healing flesh.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto dog piled the sandy super villain, striking him everywhere and looking for a weak spot. It was entirely ineffective. The man became almost intangible, solidifying only long enough to strike and disperse a clone.

"That's a useful ability you have there. You're a one man army, but it takes more than an army to stop me."

X-23 moved to the hostages. "Move them to a safe location," she ordered the bank manager, "I'll make sure that no one interferes." She could see Naruto struggling to harm the leader of the bank robbers.

"Thank you," a woman said, looking as if she wanted to stop.

"Please move along. It is still dangerous here."

The woman nodded and the group of hostages headed through a back door into some office space.

X-23 moved to attack the leader now that the civilians were out of the way. The man was busy taunting Naruto.

"No matter how many times you punch me, it's not going to make a difference. Just face it, you can't-" He was cut off as a pair of claws severed his head into thirds. His head lost cohesion for a moment, becoming a formless blob before regaining shape. "Now, that just wasn't polite." His arm bulged into a pillar that he swung into X-23's midsection. She was sent skidding with a grunt.

Naruto used this distraction to form a ball of swirling chakra that he slammed into Sandman's chest. Sandman exploded into a cloud of sand particles that spread across half the floor.

"Did that stop him?" X-23 asked.

"I think no," Naruto said as the sand swirled and gathered. Soon, their opponent had reformed himself.

"Now, that had a bit of kick to it," Sandman grunted in concentration. Once formed, he charged at Naruto, forming a large hammer of sand that Naruto ducked under.

"Any ideas?" X-23 asked.

Naruto wished he knew a powerful fire or lightning jutsu, at least then he could melt the sand.

A new figure chose this time to appear. "Marko, don't you ever get tired of being on the losing side?" This was a man in a form-fitting red and blue suit with a spider motif.

"Spider-Man, a little slow to show up today aren't you? The second string rookies here were keeping me entertained until you showed up." Flint Marko replied.

"What can I say? A black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way here," Spider-Man quipped.

"Like Kakashi..." Naruto shuddered.

"Now, since you're here robbing a bank, you're gonna have to do some hard time!"

Spider-Man threw a small capsule that exploded into a white powder all over Marko. With a fwip sound, a web shot from Spider-Man's wrist and connected to the fire suppression system. With a pull, water sprayed out, covering everything. When it struck the white powder on Mark it seemed to steam for a moment before the criminal became nothing but a statue.

"Thanks for the assist kiddies!" Spider-Man said before leaping out of the building and disappeared upwards.

Naruto looked at X-23 for a moment, then raced out after the web-slinging superhero. X-23 followed on his heels. Spider-Man was already off in the distance, swinging from building to building with his sticky webbing.

"Get on. I carry," Naruto crouched, knowing that X-23 couldn't keep pace with the swinging man. He grunted as X-23's weight fell on his back, then took off, using chakra to run along the sides of buildings and avoid the crowds. Naruto was slowly catching up until Spider-Man took a turn and disappeared from sight.

"That way!" X-23 yelled after sniffing, using her enhanced senses to track the man. Naruto turned, following the girl's directions. "UP!" Naruto came to the top of a four story building and dodged out of the way of a shot of webbing.

"Wait! No want fight!" Naruto held up his hands in a placating gesture towards the web slinger who was stuck to the wall of the roof access stairwell. Naruto looked at Spider-Man for a moment, then grinned. "I is can do that!" X-23 slipped off his back as he ran forward and stuck next to Spider-Man, mimicking his position. "Sticky, sticky!"

"So, what did you two want enough to chase me across town?"

"We is new. Sandman said this place is for Spider-Man. Is this problem if we is stopping bad people?"

"Problem? No... More like responsibility. My uncle used to tell me, 'With great power comes great responsibility.' I never really understood what he meant until I received my powers. At first, I tried to use them to make money in fights, but one day I got a real wake up call. One day, the promoter stiffed me on my cut, so when I saw someone rob him, I did nothing. Later that night, my uncle was shot. It was the same man I could have stopped. He wanted my uncle's car. I had refused to use my power responsibly, and my uncle paid the price for it."

"No matter ability, true power come only when protect... taisetsuna... people," Naruto responded.

"That's why I wear this mask. My enemies have found out who I am before and have gone after my family and friends to get to me. That is the danger of being a superhero, not what the criminals will do to you, but what they will do to the people you care about when they can't get to you."

"What is superhero?" Naruto asked.

"A superhero is a person with special abilities who uses those abilities to stop villains. For example, I got bitten by an experimental radioactive spider. I should have died from it, but I survived and gained my spider powers that I use to stop criminals."

"Dr. Strange is superhero too?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, but he usually works on problems a little bigger than I usually handle. My powers are fine for dealing with the usual robbers and mobsters of New York, but I doubt I could handle demonic invasions and inter-dimensional wars. How do you know Dr. Strange?"

"We are currently living with him," X-23 explained.

"We is in lab. Men do bad hurting things to us. We run away. Dr. Strange finds us. He is helping us to learn what we need to know for living in this place," Naruto elucidated, "Is other superheroes here?"

"There are a few. For example, down in Hell's Kitchen you can find Daredevil. He is blind, but his other senses are so sharp that he can fight without his eyes. It's said that he is a man with no fear. He doesn't really have noticeable super powers, so he concentrates on stopping street crime and trying to take down organized crime syndicates.

"Then there are the Fantastic Four. They are probably the most publicized for their work, though they aren't strictly heroes. They are scientists who happen to get mixed up with bad guys a lot, such as getting on the wrong side of invading aliens or their former partner Dr. Doom. Their leader Reed Richards can stretch his body. His wife Susan can become invisible and create force fields. Her brother Johnny has the ability to become engulfed in flames. Their friend Ben became like rock and is very strong.

"Another high profile hero would be Iron Man, or Tony Stark. He is the owner of Stark Industries. He is different because he has no powers of his own, but created a robotic suit that gives him abilities. Like the Fantastic Four, he is not a pure superhero. He started because the weapons his company makes were being used by terrorists. He continued to use the suit to stop thieves and other criminal threats. Occasionally, Iron Man is also a member of the Avengers. They are a group sponsored by the government to handle threats when they are beyond what the government is prepared to handle.

"The last big-name heroes in New York would be the X-Men. They are a group that trains mutants, people with powers acquired by the activation of a certain gene, to use their abilities safely for the benefit of mankind. There has been a lot of bad press about mutants lately because a few believe that they are superior to normal people. There are also groups of normal people who believe they are superior to mutants. The X-Men generally try to stop these groups from starting an all out war.

"That pretty much covers the regulars in New York, unless you count superheroes who roam around like Punisher, Thor, Hulk, or Ghost Rider."

"Thank you for the explanations," X-23 said.

"We work together, make this place safe!" Naruto grinned and gave Spider-Man a thumbs up.

* * *

The next day, Dr. Strange approached Naruto and X-23 after breakfast.

"You're wearing the same clothes as yesterday. They'll stand out, and you might want a change or two so you can wash them occasionally." He pulled out a wallet and counted out a wad of bills. "This is three hundred dollars. It should be enough for you each to get two or three outfits, though I'll expect you to pay me back once you get jobs."

Naruto took the money and examined it. Each was a paper bill which was identical save for a serial number at the bottom. Naruto checked his pockets and found one that could be buttoned closed and placed the bills inside.

"Thank you," Naruto said, giving the sorcerer a polite bow.

"I can give you some advice for where to go. For example, there is a nice discount store a few blocks from here, and across from it is a thrift store where you might find some specialty items or clothes that would normally be beyond your current budget. A few blocks south of here, you can find a military surplus store which I am sure you'll find useful."

* * *

Naruto was exhausted as he carried the bags. They had visited each of the stores Dr. Strange had recommended as well as several others in between and calculated what they could get on their budget. Naruto was amazed at the prices of some of the things they found.

In the discount store, he had seen jeans that only cost thirty dollars, but had found a pair that looked exactly the same, except for a little tag with a brand name, that cost close to five hundred. At the time, he had remarked that someone would have to be stupid to pay so much. He was even more confused by the ones that looked like X-23 had been sharpening her claws on them and cost even more.

In the thrift store, he had been lucky enough to find a track suit very similar to the one he had used in his home dimension. X-23 had assured him that if he bought it, it would not survive to see the next day. He had complained bitterly about that but had eventually been convinced to leave the clothing behind.

The military surplus store had been the most interesting one by far. All the clothing had been made of durable material such as canvas or denim and were full of pockets and pouches that a ninja like Naruto would have no trouble finding uses for. They had both agreed that these were the best they could get in terms of quality and functionality. It was the first thing they agreed was a required purchase, though two black pairs each ate up almost half their budget. There were many other useful items in the store such as knives, camping gear, and other things Naruto thought any well prepared person needed but wasn't in their budget.

One stop that Naruto wished that they hadn't needed to make was to a feminine undergarments store. Naruto could only stand by, turning more and more red, as X-23 discussed the advantages of various female chest support systems and measurements before she spent a good deal more of their money on two black sports bras that she assured him was a good deal because she would not need additional shirts while wearing them.

With only one-hundred-twenty dollars and some change, Naruto and X-23 began the search for shirts. Naruto found a t-shirt in a burnt orange color in one of the discount stores that X-23 didn't violently object to. He picked up a couple of these as well as a large dark red hooded and zippered sweatshirt that could provide him a little anonymity in a crowd as well as a few convenient pockets and nice loose sleeves.

Neither could afford new shoes on their current budget, but the ones they had acquired when they escaped fit well enough for now. They both settled on cheap mass-produced packages of underwear and socks, coming to a total of fifteen dollars between the two.

With only forty dollars left, X-23 dragged Naruto to one of the thrift stores they had visited and purchased a black leather trench coat with metallic studs, relieving them of the rest of their borrowed money.

Now they were on their way back to the Sanctum Sanctorum and Naruto was hearing a strange whooshing sound.

"Up there." X-23 pointed when she saw Naruto's Distraction. Off in the distance he could see what looked like a flying red and gold man moving at speeds he could not hope to match.

"Iron Man?" Naruto asked, remembering their brief discourse with Spider-Man.

"It is possible," X-23 replied. Neither had the knowledge to be sure.

* * *

Dr. Strange placed the final piece of the magical array. It was a spell he used quite often, but it was a pain to set up and used some ingredients that were difficult to acquire. The ritual room's floor was almost completely covered with the aspects of the spell which crossed so many disciplines that it was a miracle they all worked together so well. Lines and circles of blood, salts, and other powders and liquids wove across the floor, interconnecting at loci containing mystic symbols, gems, bowls of various ingredients, parchments of runic scripts, and even a number two pencil. He had never figured out what properties the pencil had added to the spell, but he knew it didn't work without it and that it had to be a number two.

Steven carefully crossed the room to the door, making sure not to step on any of the carefully laid elements. "Naruto, can you come here please?" he called. He suspected Naruto was in the living room trying and failing to become engrossed in books. Naruto just wasn't the book type. He would rather do or work towards a specific goal than learn for learning's sake. This experiment would help both of them in that sense. It would give Naruto enough of an understanding of his energy manipulation abilities that he could teach himself, and would allow Dr. Strange enough knowledge to know whether there were any formal disciplines close enough that he could find the boy a real dedicated teacher, or otherwise deal with him if necessary.

Naruto came around the hall corner with a yawn and a sleepy look in his eyes. "You need me for something?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. I've finally prepared the ritual I need to analyze your chakra. It's the starting point I need to begin learning about that seal and what it holds. I am also going to find out what all those hand seals you make are and how they help you manipulate your energy."

"Okay... What I need do?" Naruto asked.

"Be careful not to step on anything and move to the center of the large circle in the middle of the array and sit down," Strange instructed, tiptoeing back across the room to where he had a chair and a small table with a note pad.

Naruto just leapt to the point where he needed to be before using chakra to stop himself from toppling over. The tree climbing exercise had many uses. He then flopped down, sitting cross-legged.

"Now, I'm going to activate the spell. It will glow, and you might feel a bit of a tingling sensation."

When Naruto nodded that he was ready, Dr. Strange began to chant a spell that mixed a combination of long dead languages as the aspects of the array began to glow. After a minute of glowing and swirling colors, Dr. Strange stopped his chanting and looked down at a piece of parchment by his feet. It showed that the spell was activated correctly and listed off Naruto's inherent magical properties in a magical script which Dr. Strange copied onto his notepad. He would later translate everything into English so Naruto could understand it.

"The spell is working correctly. Your chakra, as you call it, is very similar to magical energy. Where magical energy uses willpower and spiritual energy to impose changes on the physical world, you add the third element of physical energy. This process and mixture seems to depend on the person using it. People with higher levels of physical energy have higher levels of more potent chakra, but it is much more rigid and difficult to control. People with higher levels of spiritual energy would have less and weaker chakra, but would find using it to be much easier. As you already know, you have a containment seal on your stomach that holds a demonic presence, and has some other functions I'll need to look into to really understand. Your physical energy is much higher than your spiritual energy, making it very potent but difficult to control. Your chakra's primary affinity seems to be for enhancement and shape manipulation. You also seem to have a natural talent for the wind element. Do you have any questions?"

"No," Naruto replied, shaking his head. Now he knew that Kyuubi wasn't the only reason his chakra control sucked.

Dr. Strange looked up so see X-23 watching from the doorway. "You can watch as long as you don't cross the edge of the array," he offered, prompting X-23 to enter and sit against the wall. "Now, Naruto, can you list all the hand seals you know for me?"

"Tori, I, Inu, Tatsu, Ushi, Tora, Mi, Ne, Uma, Saru, U, and Hitsuji... And the one I use for kage bunshin."

Dr. Strange wrote the name of each on a page of his notepad. "First, I'd like you to focus your chakra without using a seal so that I can understand what is normal and what is being changed by the seal.

Naruto focused intently and a blue haze began to shimmer around him. This caused a change in the description on the parchment which Dr. Strange noted.

"Now, use tori and just focus chakra, don't try to do anything with it," Dr. Strange instructed, taking down notes as the information changed. "I... Inu..."

He continued until he had done them all, noticing that the standard seals seemed to correspond to zodiac aspect magic, meaning that his language might be close to one of the far eastern languages. It was certainly not Mandarin, he knew that language. Of course, it might not correspond to any of Earth's languages either. He tentatively renamed the seals to bird, boar, dog, dragon, ox, tiger, snake, rat, horse, monkey, hare, ram and clone.

"Good. Now, can you please perform any techniques or exercises that use chakra that won't cause you to leave the circle."

"One uses chakra to break near techniques. May break this," Naruto warned, pointing to the delicate spell array.

"You may also skip any you think will cause damage to the magical array, or at least save them until last," Strange conceded.

Naruto got to his feet. "First, I put chakra in body. Make strong, fast, and hard," Naruto said.

Strange took notes. "Good. Next."

"Now, chakra stick foot to floor." Once strange stopped writing, Naruto continued without prompting. "Now, stop illusion on me only."

Strange was quite intrigued by this ability. It seemed he stopped the flows of energy in his body completely for a moment, before the flow resumed, pushing out any foreign magic. It even disrupted the scanning spell for several seconds before it reasserted itself. It was obviously very difficult for him to perform this technique, though Dr. Strange suspected that was a chakra control issue, not an issue of it being a difficult technique to master.

"Technique for area illusion pushes out chakra for breaking it. Maybe break this magic."

"Your other illusion breaking technique disrupted the effects for a moment, so you are probably right."

"This is used on another if touching as well," Naruto added, "Maybe show later." He thought for a moment. "I show bunshin. Is too small chakra for me and not work right." He performed some hand seals and a few sickly looking illusionary copies appeared.

"Yes, you seemed to have overloaded the illusion matrix. Have you tried using the same amount of chakra, but making many more?" Strange asked.

Naruto's jaw dropped as he stared at Dr. Strange in amazement. "I is not being told this before..." He performed the hand seals again and the room was filled with perfect copies of him. "I is failing academy three times for this jutsu," Naruto sighed.

"When did you learn that word?" Strange asked.

"What word?"

"Academy."

"Is my word. Is no learning your word," Naruto said, confused.

"Is it a place you go to learn things?" Strange asked.

Naruto nodded.

"Then the word is the same."

Naruto grinned happily and rubbed the back of his head.

"Okay, so next technique."

"Henge," Naruto said, performing the technique and creating a shell of chakra that made him appear to be X-23. "Is better for clone. Clone is change shape, not just hide shape."

Dr. Strange nodded. It made sense. He hadn't tested the boy's other clone technique yet, but if it was held together with a shell of chakra, then this technique would reform that rather than make a new shell.

"Kage Bunshin!" Another Naruto appeared.

Dr. Strange was surprised by the amount of data this technique created. He didn't even have time to understand more than the basics as he copied it down. Considering what he had learned about the hand seal used, this technique was terribly complicated. "Please do the technique again," Strange instructed. He had Naruto do the technique creating one to three clones close to a dozen times before he was satisfied. "That is an incredible technique."

Naruto grinned. "Now is kawarimi." Naruto began replacing himself with clones until strange stopped writing. "Rasengan!" Naruto formed the small deadly ball of spiraling chakra.

Dr. Strange was amazed at the potential of the little ball despite its simplicity. There were very few barriers that the technique would be unable to destroy, and the boy could modulate the power to cause it to do as little as throw someone away, or as much as turn half their torso into hamburger meat.

Naruto allowed the technique to disrupt, then used a clone. "Oodama Rasengan!"

Dr. Strange could tell how difficult the ball was to control at that size. The two were straining to maintain it. It's properties were essentially the same as the smaller ball, just with much more power behind them making it incredibly powerful but also incredibly unstable. He doubted it could be maintained to grind through any significant barrier, but the resulting explosion could probably take down a small building.

"That is all," Naruto said.

"That is more than enough to make you a formidable fighter, especially with your other advantages. Now, we move on to something a little more challenging. Can you draw on some of the demon's power now?"

"I try," Naruto said. He sat on the ground again and scrunched his face in concentration. The whisker marks on his face grew more prominent as the room was filled with a sense of impending unstoppable doom. A single red tail flickered into existence.

Strange knew that the demon had nine tails, which meant that Naruto was probably only accessing at most one tenth of the beasts power. As it was, it was already on par with most mid-level demons. At full power, its strength would be unimaginable. Considering it was chakra and not magic only meant that the demon was that much more powerful and incomparable to the demons he knew. It was a miracle that such a creature could be sealed. At best, he had only heard of creatures on that scale being banished to realms that were sealed off so that they could not return. The tail became more solid and began to bubble as the power continued to rise. Strange could barely force himself to continue writing down the information the array was providing him.

When a second tail began to form, Dr. Strange interjected, "Enough!" The red chakra dissipated.

"Was hard. Kyuubi no want give, then want give all," Naruto explained.

Dr. Strange understood all too well. The beast would only willingly help when its own purposes were served and would take any minuscule chance at escape. He would need to be incredibly careful when he tampered with that seal. He wished there was no need, but as it was, there was too high of a chance of the demon influencing the boy or outright taking him over in a stressful situation.

"Okay, now, try that technique you were afraid would disrupt the spell," Strange suggested.

"Okay. Kai!" Naruto put his hands in the ram seal and released a powerful pulse of chakra. Strange could feel the pulse travel through him and suppress all the active magic in his body for a split second. While it wouldn't necessarily end any spell with a continuous power source, such as something feeding off of a ley line, it would surely cause a disruption. His analysis spell shut down immediately, leaving half formed descriptors about the technique on the page. It wasn't necessary though. Most beginner dispelling charms worked on a similar principal. It was interesting to note though that, with Naruto's chakra reserves, this one could be supercharged to the point where it could be effective against stronger spells and would be an interesting tactic if he could execute the technique to disrupt a sorcerer's battle spells whilst they were casting.

"Okay, I think I understand how your hand seals work. Each one causes you to form a construct with specific properties. When you use more than one, the properties merge or reinforce each other. Sometimes the first seal will modify the second, and other times the second will modify the first, but this seems to depend on the current state of the combined chakra construct and you will only be able to tell through trial and error. Each seals properties are unique, but that does not mean they are immutable. For example, your clone seal is not actually a separate seal, it is a combination of the Saru, or Monkey, seal and the Tora, or Tiger, seal.

"I've learned that each seal is associated with a sign of the zodiac. You can look up zodiac magic in the library if you feel inclined, but it is a loose association, so you will either modify the seals or reinforce them many times to get zodiac properties.

"The first seal was Tori, or Bird. This seal is associated with expulsion. For example, if you had a rock buried in dirt, you might use the Bird seal to expel the rock. This also has many medical applications. It also has the property of piercing. If you had a wall and you wanted to make a hole in it, you might use this aspect of the Bird seal. The third and final property of the Bird seal is attraction. You might use this for a tracking technique, or mixing it with earth elements you could create a magnet to stick metal together. Any questions?"

"I can do all techniques you say with one seal?" Naruto asked.

"Maybe," Strange offered, "You might need to combine it with other seals to make it effective. Why don't we try one?" Strange caused a small clay bowl to pour its contents into another container before levitating the bowl in front of Naruto. "Use the bird seal and try to push chakra through this bowl."

Naruto concentrated and formed the seal. Nothing happened. "Is not working."

"The bird seal doesn't include any movement. You might need to touch the bowl to make it work."

Naruto nodded and tried again. This time, he focused his chakra to the tip of his index finger as he formed the seal, then reached out and lightly tapped the bowl. There was an audible crack. A small amount of clay dust coated the tip of Naruto's finger as he pulled it back. There was now a small chip in the bottom of the bowl and a web of cracks radiating from it.

"It will take some experimenting, but I am sure you can work that into a usable technique."

Naruto nodded.

"Next is I, or Boar. It seems to have two properties. The first is space. This is useful for things like targeting, and perhaps even teleportation. The second is matter. This allows you to connect to or create a physical object. Both properties are used as the primary actor in your kawarimi."

Naruto thought about this for a few moments.

"No need to memorize this immediately. I will write out the basic concepts later, though I won't be including these examples. I want to make sure you understand it all before I leave you to work on it on your own."

"Hai, arigatou," Naruto said, thanking him.

"Next is inu, or dog. Its first property is the wind element. You would use this to create a cutting or blowing wind. The second property is freedom. This property will allow the chakra to act as it would naturally or weaken the effect of another hand seal. Strangely enough, its third property is collaboration. This will allow things that don't normally work together to act as one. For example, you might use fire and water with the dog seal to make steam.

"Next is tatsu, or dragon. This is a very powerful and complex seal. It can form chakra into yang aligned chakra. This is a complex topic, so I will only give you a basic overview. You can look up more in the library later. First, yang has dominion over light. So you could make a bright flash to blind your opponent. Second, it is connected to the body. It will probably be used in any technique that you use to change or strengthen yourself. Third is motion. You might be able to combine this with boar to make a technique follow your target."

Naruto grinned at the possibility.

"Finally, yang governs enhancement. So a technique to increase your speed or strength would need to use this seal.

"Next is ushi, or ox. The first attribute of this seal is the water element. You mentioned a water dragon when we introduced ourselves. It would certainly have ox seals. The next attribute is focus, or gathering. This will allow you to cause a technique that would naturally spread out to remain gathered or gather something to use as a medium for your technique. The final attribute is physical strength which you can use to make something harder or stronger.

"Next is tora, or tiger. This seal is strongly aligned with fire. For example, while there may be wind techniques that do not use the dog seal, almost every fire technique will use the tiger seal until a person masters the technique to the point they can do them without seals."

"Jutsu with no seal?" Naruto asked.

"Seals are just a technique to help you create complex chakra forms before you can create them on your own. If you practice a technique enough, you should be able to do them with no seals. Remember, you told me how your second hokage could do the water dragon which takes forty-four seals in one seal."

Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "I is forgetting."

"The second aspect of the tiger seal is explosion, or combustion. For example, if you wanted to turn water into a mist, you might use this seal. The final attribute of the tiger seal is expansion. If you wanted a technique to go out in all directions around you, you might use this seal for that. Notice that combustion and expansion are both attributes of fire."

Naruto nodded.

"The next seal is mi, or snake. The snake's first attribute is earth. So, you could use the snake seal to throw rocks at your enemy. The second attribute is flow. This is different from movement because you are only giving it a guide and it will move on its own. You might use it for something like creating a elemental whip or cause something to move like a river. The third attribute is density. This is very useful for defense because you can make something so hard it is almost impossible to break, or you could also use it to make something so soft you can walk right through it.

"Next is the ne, or rat, seal. This seal is the opposite of the dragon seal. If you use a dragon next to a rat, the two will cancel each other out. The rat controls yin chakra. Yin has dominion over darkness or shadow. This is not to be confused with void or chaos elements which you don't have a seal for and some people confuse as the opposite of light. Yin is associated with the mind. Any technique that involves the mind, such as entering a person's mindscape or communicating with your thoughts, will use this seal. The next attribute of this seal is stillness. If you want to restrain something, this is a good seal to use. The final attribute is illusion... what you call genjutsu.

"The next seal is uma, or horse. I think you will find this seal particularly useful. One of its attributes is control. If you are having trouble with a technique because of your excess physical energy, adding a horse seal may allow you a better chance of using it. The horse is also associated with healing, but you will probably never have the control required to do more than the simplest healing regardless of how many times you use the horse seal. The last ability of the horse is calmness. This will help you control some of the more difficult elements and stabilize some unstable techniques.

"Next is saru, or monkey. You will find that this seal in particular is easy to skip when performing techniques because it is aligned with your greatest strengths. The monkey is primarily about shape manipulation. If your rasengan had a hand seal, this would be it. The monkey's second attribute is mimicry. You've probably noticed that it is easy to find a unobservant person using your henge technique. If you added a monkey, you would copy something exactly instead of having to create the form yourself. The final attribute of the monkey is manipulation. For example, if you had a technique and you wanted to be able to decide where it goes after you release it, the monkey seal could help you.

"Next is u, or the hare seal. The hare seal is used to create the lightning element. So, if you wanted to fire a bolt of lightning at someone, you would use the hare seal. Its next attribute is speed. You might want to consider using it with ox and dragon to create a technique that will increase your movement speed. The next attribute is movement. This will be very useful in combination with the snake seal because the earth does not like to move. The final attribute of the hare is direction which is very useful with techniques you need to aim well.

"The final seal is hitsuji, or ram. This is the simplest seal. It has only two functions. The first is power. Your bird seal barely made a chip in the bowl. Adding a ram seal would probably cause the bowl to shatter. The second function is release, or activation. This destabilizes a stable chakra matrix, allowing the chakra to begin acting. Both these actions should be easy enough to do just by pushing chakra into your technique, but using the seal will help you with your control by letting you know how much you need since it will draw a set amount if you don't push it."

Dr. Strange flipped his notepad closed and sighed. "Now, there is the matter of the demon inside you. You have trouble controlling yourself when you use more of its chakra. This is because the demon is composed entirely of chakra. If you were to ever use all of its chakra it would be free of the seal and take over your body. Because the demon is composed entirely of chakra, when you draw on the demon's chakra, you also draw on its will and allow it some amount of influence on you. If you had enough willpower, you could draw on all of the demon's power with no ill effects beyond the damage it would do to your body to contain that level of demonic power. Unfortunately, the demon is far older and far more focused than you are. This means that we will have to make a change to your seal that will filter the chakra and purify it. This will be difficult because your body has adapted to demonic chakra and you will die if you don't continue receiving it. So, the chakra must be purified of any will and control without having its nature altered if you are to survive. I will need to do a great deal of studying to understand your seal and the demon within before we can consider attempting this."

"Thank you for your help Strange-sensei," Naruto said, giving Dr. Strange a respectful bow.


	5. 1-5 Sins of a Father

**Arc 1 - A New World - Chapter 5: Sins of a Father**

* * *

X-23 felt listless. Naruto was studying the translated information Dr. Strange had provided to him. Dr. Strange had his duties as the Sorcerer Supreme to keep him occupied when he wasn't studying Naruto. She had nothing. He had even gone as far as to ask Dr. Strange and Naruto if they could teach her their techniques. Unfortunately, she was not gifted with ability in the mystic arts and was far too old to begin developing her chakra. Even if she had begun learning to use chakra in a body five years younger, it was doubtful that she would ever have developed a capacity beyond that beyond that of a rookie genin because chakra channels hardened with age if they were not constantly trained.

X-23 let loose one of her claws, examining the way the light reflected off of it. With a twist of her wrist, she saw the reflection of Naruto watching her.

"You okay?" Naruto asked.

"Just bored," X-23 replied, "There is nothing here for me to do."

"Spar with me?" Naruto suggested.

"Sounds like fun," X-23 said as she slid head first off the couch and did a back handspring to land on her feet as she led the way to a room where they knew they wouldn't do any damage. The door opened into a starry void. It was actually a separate reality pocket with a single link to their universe. Dr. Strange had told them that this place was used when you needed to be undisturbed, but it was also useful for when you needed to do something potentially destructive since the void extended forever. The room did come with one warning, however, they must remain within sight of the door or they may never find their way back.

"Taijutsu only?" Naruto offered.

"Okay. No claws. No jutsu," X-23 agreed.

"Let's go!"

Naruto began to run towards her, cocking his fist back and telegraphing his punch a good three seconds before throwing it. X-23 barely needed to tilt her head to avoid the strike before planting a knee in his diaphragm. Naruto fell to the ground gasping for air. He scrambled to his feet and attacked again with a flying kick that X-23 grabbed, using his momentum to throw him several meters deeper into the void. While his agility and stamina were impressive, it soon became obvious that either he had never been taught how to fight, or his teacher had sabotaged him. He was also obviously unused to being as slow as he was, an unfortunate side effect of his new adamantium skeleton.

X-23 decided on her purpose. While Dr. Strange would help him with the mystical arts, she would do everything in her power to help him with the martial ones. With this decided, she slammed a knee into the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

* * *

X-23 having dumped the unconscious Naruto into his bed, was now wandering the streets of New York. She had found a couple martial arts dojos so far, but she was hoping to find one that would uniquely fit Naruto's style and personality. Tae Kwon Do was much too rigid for him and Karate was reduced to a tournament art more than a fighting style. Boxing completely ignored half his body. Those seemed to be the styles the majority of dojos practiced. Jiu Jitsu looked promising for ground work and holds, but its striking was weak. She was hoping that she could find a place that taught Muai Thai since it was the perfect complement to jiujitsu and matched Naruto's aggressive style.

As she was crossing the street, X-23 noticed a man on a motorcycle with chops and a few days growth of facial hair. Something about the smell of him pissed her off. It really pissed her off. Without thinking, she released her claws and tacked the man off the motorcycle, causing the man to curse. It was surprising to her that her claw did not penetrate the man's chest. She had expected the man to be dead. She realized what had happened when the man revealed claws of his own, and with a roar, drove them up under her rib cage.

As she was choking on her own blood, she heard the infuriating man growl, "Why the hell do you smell like me?"

* * *

Wolverine was heading back to the X-Mansion when he was tackled off the motorcycle by some girl with claws not too unlike his own. He was not too upset about the two pairs of twin holes in his pectorals; those would heal in seconds once the claws were removed. What really pissed him off was the crashing and scraping from his mode of transportation.

'Cyclops is never going to get off my ass about the way I keep damaging his bikes,' he thought. Letting out a bestial roar, he slammed his own claws through her soft tissue and into her chest cavity. He had fought Sabretooth enough times to know how to deal with people with healing factors. Without oxygen and blood, the girl slowly began loosing strength and consciousness.

Logan took a good whiff of the girl to see if he could identify her. There had to be a reason she attacked him out of nowhere. "Why the hell do you smell like me?" he growled. Perhaps it was another of his illegitimate children. It wasn't his fault that he couldn't remember most of his life. He picked up the bike, ignoring the mirror that had broken off. He climbed on, tossing the girl over the back before continuing on his way. Perhaps Charles could answer some of his questions.

* * *

Charles Xavier was fascinated with the girl's mind. Only the most recent memories were real, the rest was a construct created by a telepath. It was not that old memories were suppressed, hidden, or erased, they had never existed. The work was obviously incomplete, but whoever had been working on her had been a genius. He doubted that he could have done much better.

He soon found the reason for her attack buried in her combat training. It was a trigger scent based on pheromones, pheromones that Wolverine obviously produced naturally. He disconnected the scent from her combat training and reconnected it to a block of memories containing the blond haired boy that she had imprinted on and moved Logan's image to the same area with a sense of protectiveness as is deserved of family. She would likely be confused for a while before the alterations set, but once she became accustomed to his presence, there should be no more unwarranted attacks. He did a quick check for any more unconscious control mechanisms before exiting the girl's mind.

"So, what did you find, Chuck?" Logan asked.

"Well, she is not so much your daughter as your clone, or at least a partial clone. She and another boy, unrelated to you, escaped from the same facility you did. They were using some pheromones derived from your unique physiology as a form of trigger scent to make her attack. I've tried to associate your scent with family instead, so I hope you will live up to the role as she will see you as her father once she overcomes her confusion. I don't recommend removing her restraints until after the confusion ends though." With a mental command, he caused the girl to regain consciousness.

X-23 screamed in rage and struggled. She was bound with leather restraints that were beyond the reach of her claws, and the man with that hateful scent was right in front of her.

Charles Xavier watched her struggle. After a few minutes, she calms down enough form him to address her. "X-23, I am Professor Charles Xavier, head of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children. The people who programmed your mind put in a compulsion for you to attack anyone who carried a particular scent. I have disabled that compulsion because that scent is naturally produced by the man you could consider your biological father. This man is Jim Logan, also known as Wolverine."

X-23 snarled and thrashed, snapping her teeth aggressively at her father.

"You are not a prisoner here. You are only being restrained until you can control yourself. It will be difficult because it has always been a part of you, you just need to realize that you don't need to fight when you notice that scent. Logan will stay here with you. Once you can speak civilly with him, he will release you."

This elicited another fit of rage.

"Meanwhile, I will contact Dr. Strange and Naruto and let them know where you are and what has happened."

* * *

Naruto was startled when the phone rang. He knew what the phone was because he had seen Dr. Strange make calls before, but he had never heard it ring before. He moved over to the device, watching as lights blinked as it rang again. He jumped out of the way when Dr. Strange entered the room and headed to the phone.

"Hello, you've reached Dr. Strange. How may I help you?" Dr. Strange said into the receiver. A few moments later he said, "One moment. I'll put you on speaker." He pressed a button on the device that had a flattened wedge with radiating lines. "Okay."

"Hello, my name is Charles Xavier from the Xavier institute for gifted children. I am calling to inform you and Naruto of X-23's whereabouts. The men who created her implanted a psychic directive to attack anyone with a certain scent on them. It turns out that her father, a teacher at my institute, naturally produces that scent. She attacked him in town today and he brought her here. I removed the command, but it might take a few hours for her to adjust to the change and we didn't want you to worry if she was late."

"I come see her!" Naruto said in a tone that brooked no argument.

"If you insist," Xavier said before giving him general directions to the school. Naruto raced out the door before he could be offered a ride.

* * *

Naruto knew exactly where he was... Lost. He had tried to follow the directions, but either his weak command of the English language or his short attention span and bad memory had failed him. He was now wandering through some sort of industrial district filled with warehouses.

Turning a corner, he spotted an odd vehicle. It did not resemble any car he had ever seen. It did not even appear to have wheels. There were several men in yellow hazardous materials suits moving crates from one of the warehouses to the odd vehicle. These men and the vehicle both had some sort of motif formed of hexagons on them. Had this been all, Naruto would have just ignored them, instead, there were a group of the yellow garbed men carrying strange weapons that looked like long thin guns and keeping a group of security officers subdued.

Naruto crept closer for a better look. He could see that the crates were all stamped with 'STARK INDUSTRIES LTD.' on the sides. The thieves were also not actually carrying them. They seemed to be using some sort of hovering platform to move them. Naruto did what came naturally to him when he saw something bad happening. He ran in and kicked one of the men in the face.

"These are not belonging to you!" Naruto announced, drawing a spattering of laser fire that he managed to dodge with some impressive acrobatics and the fact that these men really couldn't aim very well. He performed the shadow clone jutsu, sending the clones to disable the vehicle and rescue the hostages while he continued to fight the yellow villains.

* * *

Tony was relaxing with a glass of something obscenely expensive he had not bothered to check the name of before popping the cap off the bottle and dropping down on the couch.

"TV on!" he commanded. The automated systems turned on the device which occupied an entire wall of the lavishly large room. The television was already tuned to an international news channel. Tony had just spent the last twenty hours refining a difficult power coupling and almost doubling its efficiency at the same time. The new design would be integrated into his next build of his Iron Man armor and would decrease the vulnerable area around the joints where injuries were likely to occur. He was running out of improvements he could make to the current iteration of his armor without rebuilding the design from the ground up. Perhaps it was time to move up to a Mark V battle armor despite how well the Mark IV had served him for the past few years, there had, after all, been several advances in materials sciences that he could not integrate into his current suit.

His ponderings were interrupted when the screen of the television flashed red as his phone buzzed in alarm.

"Put it on screen," he ordered. The news was replaced with security camera footage identified as being from one of his New York warehouses. He could see men in Advanced Idea Mechanics uniforms subduing the guards and appropriating his technology. He sighed in irritation as he headed back down to his private lab. Automated assembly arms attached his armor as he walks to to launch bay. Once the last piece has been affixed, he blasted into the sky at supersonic velocities.

"Call Pepper," Tony spoke to the command interface.

"Tony, what's up?" His executive assistant asked.

"I'm heading to New York. A.I.M. is ripping off one of our warehouses as we speak. I'm going to crash at the tower tonight."

"Okay, be careful," Pepper replied, "I'll move your morning appointments to your tower office."

"Thanks, Pepper. What would I do without you?"

"Run this company into the ground. You're lucky you have me. Call me when you get to the tower." Pepper hung up.

After another few minutes at supersonic velocities, Tony arrived in New York and had his display direct him to the affected warehouse. He wouldn't have been too surprised to see Spider-Man or Daredevil since this wasn't too far out of their areas of action, but he didn't expect to see two dozen identical blond boys fighting off the A.I.M. agents with hand to hand combat. Occasionally, one of the boys would be struck with a laser blast, but would just disappear in a puff of smoke. It seemed to be some sort of temporary duplication ability.

Since the thieves were distracted, Tony decided to take advantage of the situation by shooting them in the back with his repulsar blasts. In this way, the thieves were quickly disabled and left to the tender mercies of the formerly captured security guards.

"Thanks for delaying them, kid. They may have gotten away before I could arrive if you hadn't stalled them for me."

Tony turned and blasted into the air. There was no point in hanging around for fans. He was surprised when he felt his launch jink downwards suddenly as his suit reported that weight had practically doubled and the drag was using up reserve energy as fast as his miniature arc reactor could produce it.

"Shit!" Tony swore as blond hair and blue eyes filled his view. His navigational aids meant that this did not cause him to fly into any buildings, but it was quite annoying.

He flew low, performing a barrel roll as he swerved side to side, hoping to throw his passenger off. To his surprise, the boy clung to him by his fingertips with a Spider-Man like tenacity as he screamed. On second thought, over the whistling of the rushing wind he could tell that those were whoops of joy. The kid was having fun riding him like a bucking bronco. He considered activating his unibeam to make sure the kid got the message that he was not wanted. Unfortunately, killing kids did not exactly look all that great on a superhero's resume. He decided that it would be a better idea to stop for a moment and see what the kid wanted, other than a thrill ride. It also wouldn't do to keep this up until it drained his power to the point that the magnets keeping the shrapnel from piercing his heart failed.

Tony gained altitude and hovered. He would have liked to cross his arms and glare at the grinning blond, but the boy was still firmly attached to his shoulders. "Was there something you wanted from me?" To his surprise, the blonde let go of him. He was about to dive after him when he realized that the boy seemed to be standing horizontally on his armor as if his own gravitational field was overpowering that of the planet. Since he was not Graviton, he felt that situation to be unlikely. He had thought that this boy's powers had been similar to Multiple Man, but it appeared he was mistaken.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and grinned. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I is getting lost. You is knowing where Xavier Institute is?"

Tony sighed. He was just a normal mutant. It was kind of disappointing. "I know where it is, I can get you there in about five minutes."

"My friend is there," Naruto said, "I is going to see if she is okay."

"You're not a mutant?" Tony asked.

Naruto shook his head. "I is from different dimension. I is ninja!" he announced proudly.

Tony considered this for a moment. It was not the first instance of interdimensional travel he had heard of. Usually this type of this was handled by Reed since he was usually the cause of such events, or Steven Strange.

"You have nice armor," Naruto said.

"Thanks. I made it myself," Tony preened.

"You is knowing where I can is having weapons made? Weapons using chakra?"

Tony frowned. Chakra was one of those mystical concepts that Asians sometimes talked about. He had never heard about using it for weapons. Perhaps the boy was referring to something different since he was from another dimension. "What is chakra?"

"Is energy from body and mind," Naruto explained.

Tony sighed. It was exactly as those Asian mystics explained it. Why couldn't people just stick to science instead of mumbo jumbo that couldn't be seen, measured or quantified.

"Ah, I show you!" Naruto announced as he held out a hand. A swirling mass of some form of energy gathered in his hand.

Tony's eyes widened in shock. This was a visible level of energy. To be emitting photons at a rate to be so visible, the amount of energy in the boy's hand had to be incredible. "Activate all sensors and analyze that energy," Tony instructed his suit. The potential of the energy was astounding. The small amount of energy in his hand held the same explosive potential as a similarly sized block of C4. He could also tell that the energy was unstable as if it was constantly trying to fall into different states but was somehow kept at a neutral balance. If he could reproduce this energy and harness it, he could revolutionize technology. He could imagine it now, energy that had the potential to be converted directly to whatever form is needed with little or no loss.

"Is also why feet no move."

Tony scanned the boy's feet. He could indeed detect much smaller energy emissions. Once again, it was unspecialized energy on the verge of falling into other specialized states. He detected no magnetic or gravitikinetic forces. He certainly wasn't being held by friction. It almost seems like he was being held by a rubberized vacuum, but that just didn't make sense.

"That energy, it has some interesting properties," Tony said, "How about you come to Stark Tower this weekend, that big building over by the traffic circle next to central park that says Stark on the front. Stark industries can make pretty much anything, so if you let me study that energy of yours and as a thanks for helping out today, I'll make you the best weapon you've ever laid hands on."

"Arigatou! Err... Thank you, Iron Man," Naruto said with a smile.

"Where were you coming from anyway?"

"We is with Dr. Strange," the boy answered.

That made total sense considering what he had said about his dimensional travel. "Doesn't he live in Greenwich Village?" Tony queried, pulling up the data on his screen as Naruto shrugged, not knowing the names of the districts of New York. "You were going in the complete wrong direction. You headed headed west. Xavier's is mostly north and a little east. If you had gone straight North until you might have walked right by it... After a couple days. Were you seriously going to walk there?"

"I is run fast?" Naruto chuckled nervously.

"Hang on tight. This is going to get fast!" Tony said. He would drop this kid off, then head to bed.

The boy latched on with his fingers again as Tony rocketed into the air. He took a trajectory in a lesser imitation a suborbital flight, rising high enough that all of Manhattan was visible. The kid was once again screaming his joy, despite the ice crystals forming on his follicles as they began to plummet towards the open country of Salem Center about fifty kilometers north of the outskirts of downtown New York City. A hundred meters above the ground, Tony engaged thrusters and came to a swooping halt.

"See that walled area over there?" Across the highway, the back of a walled estate was visible. "That's the Xavier School," Tony said, preparing to fly over at a more sedate pace.

"Thanks. Bye!"

Naruto's miraculous adhesion released as he plummeted towards the ground. Tony was about to dive after him and soften his landing, but remembered all the other abilities the boy had. Surely he wouldn't jump from a damaging height right? There was a thud and a small crater formed in the wild turf.

Tony was mentally patting himself on the back when the blond collapsed to the ground, rolling around and swearing while he clasped his ankle in pain. Okay, maybe he had found the source of all those stupid blond jokes, assuming the kid could turn into a woman, but what were the chances of that? The boy stumbled to his feet, limping for a few steps before taking off at a run. Apparently he had a healing factor as well. Whatever else the kid did today, he was on his own. Tony was much too tired to care about anything other than a soft bed, unless there was a beautiful woman occupying said bed.

* * *

Naruto leapt across the road with a grin. Not only had he met another of New York's superheroes, but he'd also found someone willing to manufacture the weapons he was accustomed to. Getting lost today had been a good thing. As he mused, he wasn't paying attention. Instead of coming in for his next chakra enhanced leap off the road, he had landed but first in the laps of a busty blonde and brunette in the back of a convertible. Naruto grinned nervously, wondering if perhaps Jiraiya being his godfather had rubbed off on him in some way. Then there was screaming, and slapping, and Naruto was fairly sure he had accidentally copped a feel of the brunette before he had leapt out of the vehicle and was sent careening off a tree.

Naruto sat up in the grass at the side of the road. Fortunately his rib cage was made out of metal, or else that might have caused some serious damage. He flexed his hand for a moment, remembering the soft handhold he had used to vault over the car door. Somehow, he felt hitting the tree had been totally worth it. He slammed his head into the tree a few times reminding himself that he was not a pervert like Jiraiya.

Naruto took to the trees. They were not as large nor as sturdy as those in Hi no Kuni. He found himself breaking many branches and bouncing off the trunks instead more often than not, but it was still an effective method of travel. Good thing he wasn't being followed though, he was sure a blind monkey could follow the trail he was leaving.

He hopped over a couple fences and ran across a grassy divide before scaling the brick wall that surrounded the institute. He prepared to land in a crouch and race towards the main building when he noticed three things in rapid succession. The first was a ball made mostly of white irregular hexagons that surrounded black regular pentagons. The second was a large red boot. The third was a hit that reminded him of when he had replaced Tsunade's sake with disinfecting alcohol.

The his had dazed him rather badly. His vision was kind of fuzzy. He could feel the jagged edges of broken bricks in his back which meant that he had flown back and busted the wall. He was beginning to almost feel thankful to the bastards to gave him a metal skeleton. He was sure he would have likely had a serious skull fracture without it.

Naruto groaned and forced himself to his feet. He shook his head to clear his vision.

"Are you okay dude?" The speaker looked like he was made of ice.

"I think I am," Naruto said. He felt his forehead, adjusting skin that had been ripped aside by the kick, allowing his healing to deal with the cut. "You is always kick visitor in face?" Naruto asked, looking at the large man who was on the ground cradling his ankle, his body loosing a metallic texture and changing into normal skin.

"No, but it iz not a gut idea to jump head first into a game ov power soccer," this was from a blue guy with a tail that had appeared in a puff of sulfurous smoke.

"I remember that... If no brain damage..." Naruto replied, getting a laugh.

"I can't believe y'all hurt Colossus here with that skull o' your when he kicked you," a girl with white forelocks said, "I'd shake your hand and introduce myself, but you're looking bad enough already. Don't need to be adding my powers to the mix."

Naruto wiped the blood from his face to show that the gashes he had accrued had already healed. "Is not too bad. Grandma Tsunade is hitting harder." This drew laughs from several of the boys and girls, but then they didn't know Tsunade. "She is usually putting me through two walls if she not angry and she is liking me." This brought even more laughter from some and odd looks from the others. "Is someone can be showing me to Xavier?" Naruto asked.

"He's been in infirmary for a while with Wolverine and some girl. I think I may have sprained my ankle, so if you can give me a hand, I will show you the way," Colossus offered with a wince.

* * *

X-23 still felt irritated by her father's scent, but it was not longer an irrepressible urge. They had been talking for a while now, mostly about the Xavier Institute and the facilities it offered for training mutants. Her ears picked up a familiar voice. Turning to Professor Xavier she said, "Naruto is coming."

"Indeed he is. Apparently he found his own way here despite running off so hastily earlier," Charles acknowledged.

Naruto enters the infirmary, supporting the much larger Colossus on his shoulder. Upon laying eye on Wolverine, he drops Colossus and tackles Wolverine to the ground. Wolverine, not to be taken out by a young whelp, rolls with the tackle and throws Naruto into a cart of medical supplies. Naruto regains his feet as Wolverine lets out his claws. The two start to dive for each other only to freeze in impossible positions.

"Perhaps you can discuss your problems civilly rather than destroying the expensive equipment in the infirmary?" Charles suggested, "What grievance do you have exactly against Logan?" The two suddenly regained control of their bodies and almost tumbled to the ground.

"This," Naruto growled as he pulled off his shirt. His body was covered in scars. His healing factor did not waste time making things pretty when his life was endangered. There were eight of particular prominence. Two fist sized scars with radiating electrical patterns could be seen on his right chest and shoulder with matching exit wounds on his back. These were not the scars Naruto traced though. He ran his fingers along six short, almost parallel vertical lines of scar tissue. "You stabbed me in back for no reason. You is reason those assholes is use me for replacing you. I is liking having bones that don't break, but I is not wanting to be stuck in tube for sick experimenting!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble, kid, but I don't remember any of that. Those assholes, as you put it, were messing with my head. I only remember flashes of my time with them in some of my dreams, even with Chuck's help. I don't have any clear memories until I woke up naked in a barn and all I had to remember myself by were these dog tags saying my name was Jim Logan. I can't exactly be held responsible for that."

"Well, now, I is knowing I can live if losing my heart. Next time you will not be taking me down so easily." He stuck out his tongue childishly then turned to X-23. "What was you doing when you is running into your old man?" Naruto asked.

"You lack proper form in your hand to hand fighting skills. I was looking for a place that could teach you hand to hand fighting skills that match your personality and style. I found a Jiu Jitsu dojo which is good for holds and submissions and ground fighting. I was hoping to also find a Muai Thai dojo or something similar since I believe that style most closely matches your personality and is most easily adaptable to your unique approach to fighting."

Naruto sighed, looking dejected that she thought so little of his combat skills. He had worked so hard to learn those forms from Mizuki and had finally reached the point where he could use them effectively... His mind began connecting the dots as he came to the realization that Mizuki had purposefully sabotaged his training. He couldn't believe he had never realized it before. No wonder the perverted sage had spent so much time trying to fix his taijutsu.

"These should allow you to fight aggressively and unpredictably, while not relying on luck for offense and your healing for defense," X-23 concluded.

"If you want, I can program those styles into the institute's danger room. That would allow you to train here without worrying about harming normal people as long as there isn't anyone else using it at the time," Wolverine suggested, "I can help you train, give me a chance to get to know you and your friend." Wolverine turned to Naruto after a moment of thought. "And to make up for stabbing you, even though I don't remember it."

"That would be acceptable," X-23 turned to Naruto for confirmation. He grinned happily.

"Well, it's good that all that is settled," Xavier chuckled, "There is one other issue that has me concerned. You, miss, have been going by the label X-23. That is an experiment number, not a name. Logan, perhaps it is time you gave your daughter a name."

"I haven't exactly been a model father," Logan replied, "Choose your own name kiddo. It will be whatever makes you happy."

"Charles, Jim, Steven, Naruto; Those are all the names I know. What should I call myself?" X-23 queried innocently.

Charles chuckled. "I think you will find it better if you chose a name traditionally used for females. You don't seem to have come into contact with any since you escaped."

"I will need to think on it," Laura said, furrowing her brow. "Do you have any suggestions?"

Naruto thought about the women he knew for a moment. "I is not say. If I say, I think person when you use name. If I choose, I choose of who I want X-23 be like. X-23 is X-23. I can not give name."

"That is a rather mature view for you to take," Xavier commented, "It is good that you respect her so much that you want to preserve a friendship with her rather than burdening her with any expectations that you attach to a name of a person you know. It is better that she choose a name that suits her own goals and sets her own expectations so you can continue to think of her as who she is and who she chooses to be. I'm not so sure I can say the same for you Logan."

Wolverine crossed his arms and snorted, glancing away to an empty corner of the room.

"Even if one of you is not technically a mutant, I want to let you know that you are both welcome at this institute whenever you want, whether as guests or if you should so choose students in residence."

Naruto shifted uncomfortably at the thought. "Is better for me to stay at Dr. Strange. I is needing his help to learn and for... another thing," Naruto mumbled, crossing his arms defensively and glancing away much as Logan had done when Charles had chastised him.

"I suppose you're right, but don't feel that you'll be unwelcome. I am sure many of the students would enjoy a spar or a game once in a while."

Naruto nodded.

"I will stay with Dr. Strange as well. I do not feel comfortable among crowds. His scent," X-23 jutted her chin towards Wolverine, "is everywhere as well." X-23's claws slid half out then back in. "I also do not wish to leave Naruto. He feels safe when others are threats. I am used to his presence."

"I understand."

"If you're heading back, I guess I can give you a lift," Wolverine offered.

"One thing," Naruto said, he turned to Colossus whose foot was being wrapped in a pressure bandage by a furry blue man. "Is you being alright."

"I will be fine in a few weeks. It is only a minor sprain," the large muscular man laughed, "How is your head?"

"Still there, so is good," Naruto joked.


	6. 1-6 A Rose By Any Other Name

**Arc 1 - A New World - Chapter 6: A Rose By Any Other Name**

* * *

Naruto was experimenting with his shadow clones since he had received the completed notes on hand seals from Dr. Strange. Feeling that a methodical approach was best, he started at the top of the list with the bird seal. No matter how hard he tried, the bird seal merely caused his clones to fail. He didn't know why, but then he didn't know how the bird seal's affects could help his clones either.

Once he gave up on using the bird seal, he moved on to the boar seal which he found was much more compatible with the shadow clone technique. In fact, placing it before or after had different effects once he managed to make a stable shadow clone with the alteration.

If he put the boar seal after the clone seal, he found that the clones were much more stable. Where a normal shadow clone would disappear with even the most minor of injuries, with the boar seal added, a physical impact had to be strong enough that it would have normally broken bones had they not been coated with adamantium. Cuts were more effective than physical impacts though. Anything that went much beyond skin deep would still dispel a clone. It was a major improvement since the fragility of shadow clones meant that sometimes they accidentally dispelled themselves, and couldn't survive being swatted for being annoying. These ones could take a couple hits in a fight. He would have wondered why no one had thought of making this change to shadow clones before, except that even he could feel the drain of making them. He doubted he could make more than two hundred of these before he became exhausted when he could easily make a thousand normal shadow clones and barely be winded.

If he put the boar seal before the clone seal, he could control where the clone manifested. Normally, the jutsu put the clone in the closest available space. With this, he could put the clone anywhere he could spread his chakra to. At first, he could only choose which direction the clone appeared in relative to his body, but after enough of his chakra became dispersed in the air from his practice, he found his range growing. It had taken him a few hours to realize that it was the chakra residue of his dispersing clones that extended his range. After that, he allowed some of his chakra to leak out until it permeated the room and found that it was even easier and more precise to place close this way. By pushing his chakra as far as he could, he found that his range was about sixty meters, but suspected that he could increase that with practice or using clones to extend his range since he could create massive amounts of normal shadow clones that extended to much greater distance.

With two new ways to use the shadow clone technique, Naruto decided to try combining them. It worked, but Naruto was staggered by the amount of chakra used. He had never before found a technique he would consider needed to be used sparingly. Even the summoning technique had been rather easy one he had mastered it. He had been able to summon the three top battle toads at the same time and still had tons of chakra left. This had taken even more chakra than that many times over. Naruto hoped that, like summoning, this would get easier with practice as well. He couldn't imagine a battle where he would need to restrict himself to a mere fifty clones.

Before stopping for lunch, Naruto attempted one more experiment. This time he used the dog seal. Putting the dog seal before the clone seal resulted in clones that were quite unstable and partially transparent. Putting the dog seal after made the clones completely unstable. He tried the former a few times, deciding that the jutsu must be doing something but that he was missing something and that he could experiment more later.

* * *

X-23 was flipping through the books in Dr. Strange's library looking for names. "Thel'kessa, Desdemona the despoiler, Theodierce, Ch'Tak-Zklla, Sisifidyne, Babanona," she read aloud the names, being incapable of pronouncing most of them, assuming she was reading them correctly. It seemed that the books in Dr. Strange's collection contained the names of gods, demons, and other otherworldly entities, none of which were meant to be comprehended by the human mind, let alone spoken by the human tongue. She slammed the current book closed in disgust. The chances of her finding a decent name here were so miniscule that it was not even worth looking.

X-23 tossed the book onto the table as she stood and stretched, arching her back until it gave a satisfying crack. She picked up the book and returned it to the empty spot on the shelf before following her nose to Dr. Strange.

Dr. Strange was in a study. He had large rolls of heavy paper set out and was currently using a mortal and pestle to crush various ingredients that he used to create magical inks.

"Can I help you with something?" Dr. Strange asked, looking up from crushing the carapaces of some black bug into a fine powder.

"I was looking for a name for myself. All the names in your books are strange." Dr. Strange chuckled with good humor at her observation. "Do you know where I can find a list of names?"

"You might try at the library. They have computers you can use to search the internet. That would probably be the easiest way. Otherwise, there are lots of books there with what would be considered normal names."

"I will go to the library," X-23 stated.

* * *

After lunch, Naruto's chakra had regenerated sufficiently that he began practicing with his reinforced clones. He formed a clone and began to fight.

The clone was surprisingly agile, dodging instead of attacking head on. Eventually, though, Naruto charged a rasengan and slammed it into the clone's gut. He had not expected to receive a right cross a moment before the clone disappeared. Naruto was surprised. He was sure that he had struck the clone with a blow that should have destabilized him first. This merited further examination.

Naruto made another clone. He gave it a chakra enhanced blow to the gut half a second before he received a knee to the ribs. With more experimentation, he found that his clones lasted up to two seconds before destabilizing. A rasengan to the face would only give the clone a tiny fraction of a second to make a final blow. A toe crushing stomp would give almost two full seconds and Naruto could see the perpetuation of the clone's shell's destabilization. It reminded him of his rasengan training. A normal shadow clone was like the water balloon from the first stage of training, thin and fragile. When it destabilized, it always exploded instantly and catastrophically. The reinforced clones, however, were like the second stage of rasengan training where he had needed to pop a rubber ball. It took much more power to pop the rubber ball than the balloon, and even when he did pop it, if the power wasn't concentrated enough, it would only cause a small hole that would deflate the ball instead of an explosion.

It didn't take long for Naruto to realize the potential of his clones. One of his problems of his normal clones was getting close enough to use a rasengan before being dispelled. With this, they could kamikaze and take an attack in order to ensure that they delivered one of their own. Even though it took more chakra to create one, they might actually end up costing him less chakra in the long run if he used them wisely, using normal shadow clones for distractions.

"Excuse me, Naruto. If you don't mind, I'd like to inspect your seal," Dr. Strange interrupted his training.

* * *

X-23 wandered the library. It was a busy place. Students lounged around with piles of books or scanning the stacks while adults seemed to be taking a more ordered approach, seeming to know where to find their quarry by virtue of experience or comprehension of Dewey Decimal. Several computers were scattered about the large building. Every one of them was occupied.

She continued to explore, bypassing the children's sections and turning around the end of a shelf to run into a girl carrying a stack of books. The girl had long blonde hair that was slightly messy, blue eyes, and a pair of thick rimmed glasses that told most fashion aware people that she was well aware that she was one of the nerds and not one of the cool kids. She wore a pink hoodie and tight blue jeans that demonstrated that despite her more academic tendencies, she still kept herself healthy. X-23 looked at the girl. X-23 had barely noticed the collision, being used to sparring with the likes of Naruto, but the girl she had run into had bounced off her and fallen to the floor, sending her books and papers flying.

"Ow! Sorry about that. I should pay more attention to where I am going," the girl said. She scrambled to her knees, stopping a moment to rub her hip where she had struck the stone floor. "You're pretty sturdy. It felt like I walked into a wall."

"It is difficult to cause me serious harm," X-23 agreed.

The girl began to gather her books and papers. "I'm Gwen, by the way, Gwen Stacy."

"Is there a procedure for getting access to a computer?" X-23 asked.

"You need to talk to the librarian and reserve a time," Gwen replied, "What did you want to use a computer for?"

"I am looking for a list of names. I was told that the internet had sites dedicated to this."

"Oh! Is it because you know someone who's having a baby?" Gwen asked excitedly, pulling her gathered items to her chest as she stood.

"No. It is for myself. I was never given a name. I am known as X-23 right now. My... father... suggested I find a name that I would think was appropriate."

"Why would you be called that. It's almost like you were some sort of an experiment."

"That was the label on the tank when I escaped," X-23 replied.

Gwen smiled nervously. "It was nice to meet you. I hope you find a good name."

"Thank you," X-23 replied, heading towards the service people near the entrance.

"Can I help you?" The librarian was sitting at a polished wooden counter. She had a computer in front of her. Behind her were printers and photocopiers that could be accessed at a few cents per sheet.

"I would like to use a computer," X-23 said.

"Okay. Do you have a library card?" the librarian asked.

X-23 shook her head negatively.

"Have you ever had a library card at any of the New York City libraries?"

"No, this is my first time in a public library."

"Are you a resident of New York?"

"I am living in the residence of Doctor Strange, the Sanctum Sanctorum," X-23 answered.

"Do you know the address dear?" the librarian queried.

She responded with the Greenwich Village address.

"Okay," the woman typed the address into the computer. "And what is your name?"

"I do not have a name. I require access to a computer to find a name to call myself. I was told the best source of names was the internet."

"That can't be right. At your age, people must call you something."

"I am currently known as X-23," she responded.

"You're staying with Dr. Strange because you're different from normal people, right?" the librarian asked.

X-23 nodded. "Until we are able to support ourselves."

"Unfortunately, without a name, we cannot create a library card for you. We do have other resources that can help though. There should be some books with lists of names, though they may be a little old fashioned. You can also check the names of the authors."

"Very well. I will use your suggestions then."

* * *

Naruto collapsed into a soft chair. Channeling chakra for two hours straight with no breaks was an exhausting task. It was probably good stamina training, but that wasn't an area he particularly needed to work at.

Dr. Strange had spent the whole time checking and copying the seal. It did not look like much when just looking at the inscription on Naruto's stomach, but most complex seals tended to be layered with compression scripts which fit a very large seal array into a very small space, leaving what appeared to be random punctuation and squiggles in place of kanji and chakra circuits. In fact, the only seal Naruto knew of that did not use compression was the explosive seal, and that was because it was so simple, and the fact that the amount of storage capacity, and therefore explosive potential, was a factor of sealing area. The seal on Naruto's stomach, however, was the opposite of simple. It used two four symbols seals, each of which was already a heavily compressed and layered seal, and combined them into the eight trigrams sealing style, adding various gates, locks, fail-safes, and stuff Naruto couldn't even begin to comprehend even as Dr. Strange was explaining it, all while slowly boosting his own chakra reserves by slowly pumping the fox's chakra into him.

Dr. Strange could, of course, have magically copied the seal in seconds, but that risked temporarily destabilizing the seal, or even duplicating the fox inside. Knowing that no inanimate object could possibly contain a being of such power, even Naruto knew this course of action would have been folly.

With the seal done, and Dr. Strange preparing to study the parts that did not make themselves obvious to him, Naruto went back to trying to add the dog seal to his clones.

* * *

X-23 was having no luck finding a name. She did not know what would make a name a good name. None of the ones she had seen had particularly appealed to her in any way. It didn't help that most female authors used initials instead of first names to disguise their genders. She came out of the stacks and found the blonde haired girl she had run into earlier and sat across from her.

"What are you reading about?" X-23 asked, startling Gwen.

"Biology. I know Peter is going to get top honors in chemistry, so I decided to aim for a different subject."

"I don't know anything about biology except human physiology. Is it interesting?"

"Yes, actually. I am currently reading about the methods of mutation and how it results in resistant diseases."

"Mutations, is that the same thing that causes mutants?"

"That's actually quite a controversial subject. Everyone has small mutations. If you went by the definition of people with mutations are mutants, then everyone would be a mutant." Gwen's nervousness at talking with the odd girl lessened as she began to lecture on a subject she had well studied. "Mutants are actually a label applied to people with one specific mutation that is known as the X-gene. This gene itself is surprisingly controversial. Some people say it can only be passed on by the father. Some say it must be passed on by the mother. Some think there are two forms or perhaps either can pass the gene and the other parent must provide some sort of catalyst for activation since sometimes they are born to parents without the gene. Then there is the controversy about how the gene actually works since it expresses itself differently in everyone. The most accepted theory is that the X-gene somehow works with the rest of the DNA in some unknown way resulting in whatever changes the mutant receives.

"There is also the controversy about what to do about mutants. A lot of people are scared of mutants because some of them have incredible powers that any terrorist would die for. It only takes one nut job with a powerful ability to wipe out a city. But then there are groups like the Friends of Humanity that just want to execute all mutants even if all they do is help people. A lot of innocent people have been hurt by people like them.

"People need to understand that everyone has the capacity for good and evil. We shouldn't judge people by what they are, but by what they do. There are tons of super powered people just in this city. Take Spider-Man for example. He goes around protecting innocent people and stopping crimes and for some reason the papers and the police seem to think he's the anti-Christ. He's never killed anyone, not even the bad guys. Then we have murderers like the Scorpion who were created to stop Spider-Man. But, it's not like all super powered people are feared. I don't think there is anyone that hates Captain America."

* * *

Naruto can't seem to get his clones working with just a dog seal. The clone just remains too unstable to be useful. Naruto thought about the problem for a minute. If his clone was too much of an illusion to be stable, it needed to be made into solid matter with a boar seal like his hardened clones.

Dog, clone, boar. The clone immediately destabilized. Naruto tried a few more times with no other effect. Apparently that did not work.

Boar, dog, clone. This time the semi-transparent clone looked like how his normal clones usually looked. He tried making more with the same amount of chakra, but it just caused the clone to become even more twisted and warped. It almost made him sick to look at it.

Dog, boar, clone. The clone stabilized for a moment, then exploded. Naruto was sent flying back by a burst of wind that left cuts all over his body.

"Kuso!" Naruto swore. That had been an incredibly devastating attack. He was certain that if he had not had his healing factor, that would have probably killed him. He tried again, focusing more chakra into the boar sign, hoping it would stabilize the clone more. This time, the clone held. Naruto sent it across to the other side of the room and had it dispel. A wave of wind radiated out from the clone. Naruto braced himself as the blast wave passed over him. At this distance, it was not enough to knock a man over, but it could throw off a jump. Standing right next to the blast would throw someone back two or three meters. While the concussion of the wind was not directly dangerous, it was very disruptive to a battle in close quarters. The blades of cutting wind riding inside that concussive wave made it a dangerous attack, though the effectiveness was limited by distance. He would definitely need to practice more with these clones. He could only imagine how effective they would have been in many of his fights.

"I have returned," X-23 announced, entering the room.

"You find good name?" Naruto asked, taking a break from his training.

"No. Things were more difficult than anticipated, but I made a new friend."

* * *

Naruto arrived at the massive structure of concrete steel and glass. Stark tower was one of the most technologically advanced buildings in New York. Naruto entered through the automatic doors in the front of the building. The marble floors, chrome steel accented hardwood walls and furniture covered in wide screen monitors and wall to wall transparent security divider made of aluminum oxynitride screamed of both sophistication and wealth. A man in a blue security uniform sat behind a desk built into the security wall. Naruto approached the guard. The barrier seemed solid between them, so he wondered how he was going to talk to the man.

The guard looked up. "What's your business at Stark Tower today?" The man's lips moved, but the man's voice seemed to come from within the counter.

"Iron Man is telling me to come today," he answered.

The guard looked at him then checked his computer. "I do not have any appointments listed."

"He is telling me to be coming today. I is coming today." Naruto insisted.

"I'll check to be sure," the guard said, not at all convinced. He picked up the phone and pressed the speed dial for the office of Pepper Potts. "Hello, this is front security. There is some blond foreign kid who claims Iron Man asked him to come in today. You know anything about this?" The security guard listened for a few moments. "You sure?" He hung up the phone. "Sorry, but if you want to see him, you're going to have to make an appointment."

"Is no mistake. I is told be here!"

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave," The guard insisted, lowering one arm to his belt and the other to a control panel. In a fit of terribly bad timing for the for the guard, an employee rushed out right then, giving Naruto ample time to throw himself through the security gate.

Naruto rolled across the ground as the guard drew his gun. Naruto cartwheeled into a shoulder check, filching the guard's identification badge before running towards the stairwell. It took him only a few moments to figure out how to work the tap and go mechanism of the lock with the stolen identification card before he was rushing up the stairs.

He managed to get to the third floor before he reached another security door that would not allow him to pass, forcing him to exit. This floor was filled with a maze of cubicles. At this point alarms began to blare.

Naruto ran into a cubicle and startled a man as he vaulted off the desk and into an empty cubicle on the opposite side to avoid a squad of guards. He ran to the end of the hall and looked left. There was a security team bearing down on him. He turned to the right and continued running. Another security team exited a row of cubicles and spotted him. One of the men raised some sort of weapon and pointed it at him. Naruto didn't care to find out what it did. He slammed open a nearby door into an office. A bald man in a suit barely had time to topple off his chair in surprise before Naruto leapt to the roof then somehow slithered his way out the half open window, sticking to the outside as he slipped under the inclined pane of glass.

* * *

Tony was looking over reports in his office. Sometimes he thought it would just be better to hand the company over to Pepper so that he could spend his time inventing things instead of worrying about budget items. His concentration was abruptly disturbed by a sudden alarm. Perhaps this meant he could get some action as opposed to this life draining desk duty.

"What's up, Pepper?" Tony asked, casually strolling out of his office.

"Some kid claimed that he had an appointment with Iron Man. He refused to leave when he was told we didn't have any appointments on the schedule, then evaded security and entered the building."

Tony thought for a moment. "Did this kid happen to be blond, speak with a Japanese accent, and have unusual abilities? Cause if he did, I forgot to mention to add him to the schedule for this weekend."

Pepper sighed and pointed to the window.

Tony turned and saw the strange energy manipulating kid sticking his face against the window and trying to peer through the glass. He grabbed Pepper's tablet computer from her hands and accessed the building's security systems, disabling the window occlusion on that floor for five minutes, surprising Naruto. Tony grinned and pointed towards the ceiling. Naruto got the message and began to climb.

"Since he's expected, we don't need to remain on lock down, do we." Pepper took the tablet back from him.

* * *

X-23 stood in the middle of a metal plated room next to her father. Steel bulkheads and cables lines the walls and converged in the center of the room where a hemispherical bulge protruded from the ceiling.

"The danger room was originally just a heavily fortified and trapped obstacle course to help hone our skills, but over the years, the technology has improved until it became what you see here today. This iteration of the danger room was built by a mutant who goes by the name of Forge. He has the ability to see how energy flows in machines and understand it. Taking advantage of this ability, he can build anything as long as he really understands what he wants to accomplish, though he often has to disassemble his inventions afterward to figure out how he made them since he is not working from a mechanical perspective like anyone else would."

Wolverine went through a door and appeared in a control booth that projected from the top front corner of the room. His voice soon continued from hidden speakers.

"The danger room can create solid holograms that can replicate most physical or energy projection abilities and objects. There are various scenarios programmed so that you can have real life fighting experience without worrying about harming innocent bystanders or being killed by your opponent since the simulation has safety protocols that will cause the simulation to pause when it detects critical damage is about to be done. It also records all sessions so you can review the battles and use it to discover your weaknesses.

When training for a specific mission, we usually set specific parameters that will help us prepare for that mission. For general training though, we have difficulty levels. I never train on levels lower than eleven unless working with someone new. For you, we will start with level three and then work your way up until you feel comfortable."

The room shimmered like a rainbow as it seemed to be replaced by a destroyed cityscape. There were apartment buildings in each direction, but they looked as if they had come under attack by a carpet bombing. The street was scorched and shattered and littered with glass. There were several burned out wreckages of personal vehicles on the side of the road and a overturned container truck barring passage to one end of the street. In the other direction was a blond haired punk. He was wearing ripped jeans, a spiked leather jacket and gloves, and a pair of thin wraparound shades. His form was thin and lanky, obviously a speed fighter rather than relying on strength or agility.

"'ello lil lady. Wassay we 'av a lil fun," the blond said with a smirk before snapping his fingers.

A faint hum like that of a powerful electric field was enough warning for X-23 to dive out of the way as a small yellow globe the size of a marble leapt from the man's finger's and launched itself through where she had been before fizzling against the concrete. It had only been a warning shot. The humming sound returned and she could see him holding out his hand and gathering energy. The projectile seemed to be a small white marble that contained the majority of the energy surrounded by a halo of yellow which was what her opponent seemed to grip.

"'ere catch!" he threw the yellow sphere and it flew straight as if it were a laser though nowhere near as fast.

X-23 dodged again, though with much more grace. The ball whizzed by her and struck one of the burned out cars. The car was rocked by the impact. She now knew where all the scorch marks supposedly came from. She released her claws and began evasive action as the thrower began alternating hands to maintain a steady stream of attacks. She steadily maneuvered closer, then jammed her claws into the ground. A spray of glass and gravel impacted an orb of energy as it was leaving her opponent's hand, causing him to be caught in his own attack. She never gave him an opportunity to recover before her claws decapitated him.

* * *

Naruto was doing a rather impressive imitation of Spider-Man as he scaled Stark Tower from the outside. His cheek remained pressed against the mirrored glass as he tried to peer through and catch a glimpse of Iron Man wherever he was. He was near the top when suddenly the mirroring disappeared and the glass became perfectly transparent. There were a few people inside. Some were seated on comfy looking leather seats. Some were walking with a purpose. Two caught his immediate attention. One was a black haired man and the other was a red haired woman. The black haired man caught his gaze then pointed upwards. Naruto glanced up. Since there were no other entrances, the man obviously wanted him on the roof. He grinned, gave the man a thumbs up to show he got the message, then began to climb with purpose.

Naruto stood at the highest point of the roof. He figured that he would be able to see and greet or evade his welcoming party from here regardless of where they appeared from. He was alerted by the click and swoosh of a door that led out to an area that had a raised metal platform marked with a circle with an 'H' in the center. Naruto scaled down the wall, checking for hidden guards. Just as Naruto was peeking into the door behind the man, he let out a piercing whistle.

"Gah!" Startled, Naruto lost his grip and fell face first into the ground. Naruto rolled over and looked up into the faces of the two that had directed him to the roof.

"And thus dies the legend of the ninja's infamous agility," the man chuckled.

Naruto arched his back, pushing himself up into a one-handed hand stand, then cartwheeled back to his feet. "I was being checking for trap. Is not expecting you make that noise." Naruto rubbed the back of his head with an embarrassed smile. "I is being Naruto Uzumaki. I is here for seeing Iron Man."

"I'm Tony Stark, owner of this company, and pilot of the Iron Man armor."

"You is Iron Man?" Naruto asked.

"Did you expect me to wear the armor all the time?" Tony replied.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer but thought better of it.

"And, I am Pepper Potts, the person who manages his company and schedule and whom he forgot to mention anything about you to." The redhead elbowed Tony in the ribs.

"Yeah, sorry about that. By the way, any suggestions about the security since you seemed to get past the entrance so easily?"

"Is only one door. If is open by person who go in or out, any person can go in or out. If use two door and only one can open you is not having people running past." Naruto held out the security pass he had taken. "Man who is control doors is too close to door. If I kill him, is no alarm."

Pepper Potts typed notes into her tablet.

"You'll find it much harder to break in next time," Tony assured him.

"Get in is not hard. Get in with no break and no hurt is hard. I can just break wall and guard, go through hole, break doors, climb walls, break windows, explode guards. Is not hard, is I not want to do it."

Tony took the guard's id and tossed it to Pepper. "We shall see if it will be as easy as you say it is. I intend to determine the full capabilities of this chakra of yours and hopefully how to replicate it or its properties."

Tony lead Naruto inside, taking a different route than Pepper who had to deal with the day to day minutia of the company and return the id badge to its rightful holder. They went down a few levels on a spiraling metal staircase and came to a room filled with equipment. The primary pieces of equipment seemed to be a large multi-jointed mobile manipulator arm which looked like it could use one of many attachments that hung on one of the walls, a large computer with a three dimensional holographic display, and a platform which currently held the Iron Man Armor.

"Store Mark IV Armor," Tony ordered, "The computer has voice recognition software and has a program of my own design to help me with my usual tasks in the lab," he explained as the platform opened and the armor disappeared. "Now go stand in the middle of the platform and hold still while I take a baseline scan."

Naruto did as instructed. The manipulator arm began selecting attachments and one by one pointed them at every nook and cranny of his body. Some emitted colored light. Some hummed. Some made his hair stand up on end. Some didn't seem to do anything. Many made Tony make interested grunts. Eventually that stage of testing was over.

"So what type of weapons did you need?" Tony asked, not revealing anything he had learned with his initial scans.

"Most important is kunai. Is strong knife used for defense and attack against weapons and for attaching explosive tags and for throwing."

Tony brought up an image on the holographic monitor. "Something like this?"

Naruto nodded. "Then is shuriken, they-" He didn't have time to explain before a shuriken appeared next to the kunai. "Ninja wire, wire thin as hair but very very strong. One strand can carry weight of three large men. Can also channel chakra." A spool of hair-thin wire appeared next to the shuriken. "Next is fuuma shuriken. Is shuriken with blade as long as arm. Has hole in center for holding. Folds around center until like one blade with ring on end for close range and storage."

This time, Tony was not able to pull an image from the internet and had to spend a few minutes making a rudimentary design.

"What about swords, or spears, or chain-sickles?" Tony asked.

"I is not knowing how to use and is no having teacher. Is waste to make if I no really like to make own style. I is seeing other ninja use, but I is only ninja here from my world."

"Okay, I will let the computer discover optimal designs for those while we begin to test your chakra."

"I is having information from Dr. Strange's tests. Is you wanting to make copy of that?" Naruto asked, offering the bundle of paper to Tony.

"I won't really trust it since I don't understand how it works, but I can use it as a secondary source," Tony agreed. He took the papers and placed them on the surface of the holographic projector. With a small flash of light, the information was copied to the display. "Now, back to the platform with you."

"Hai!" Naruto gathered his papers and returned to his spot as the mechanical arm selected a tool.

"Now release some of this chakra and we'll see how it can be detected."

Naruto formed a ram seal, causing his chakra to billow out in a visible haze due to his massive reserves. The mechanical arm began its work.

"While that's going, tell me about chakra, what it is, how you learn to use it, how you control it, what can be done with it, different techniques you've seen or heard about that use chakra."

"Chakra is energy for living. All life is needing chakra. Even you is having chakra even if is only little chakra. Chakra is made with energy from body, from exercise, and energy from mind, from thinking. Chakra is made by body, is no thing I do."

"If that is the case, then why would you have so much while I have so little?" Tony asked.

"There is inside, like for blood, where chakra is. If is full, no more chakra is made. When you is little, chakra is soft, can stretch with training. If you keep training, it stay soft and keep stretching and get big and get more chakra. If you is no train, chakra is becoming hard and stretching is can kill you, so chakra is staying small."

"So, use it or lose it deal. You need to start as a kid. What is the oldest you could possibly start training before it became dangerous?"

Naruto shrugged. "I is no seeing any who is more than eight in academy, but I is knowing of really weak ninjas from other places who is starting later. Earlier is better. Most of famous ninjas start before four years, but not done often because many are becoming insane. My sensei was chunin by six years, is middle rank ninja."

"That may be why we never really discovered chakra the way your world has. We don't really approve of having kids fight."

"Is no only for fight, but is fun part," Naruto grinned, "Is used for farming, for preparing fields with earth jutsu or bringing rain with water jutsu. Is used for tool making with fire and seals, but is only retired shinobi who is using for this. We is no teaching to civilians because is too dangerous. Most jutsu is for military purposes. They is more fun to make."

"I'll admit that blowing things up is both exciting and satisfying, but I also enjoy doing a good deed or two every one in a while," Tony said, "Why don't you tell me about some of the different types of jutsu there are."

"The first jutsu type is taijutsu. Is mostly normal fighting. Is using chakra to make skin harder, make muscles stronger and faster, and is sometimes making other things happen. Is clan in Konoha with taijutsu where is using chakra to turn off chakra or kill or break organs with soft touch. Is very dangerous. Tsunade is making very strong. She punch and big hole is made in ground. She is knocking over castle once.

"Next is ninjutsu. Most jutsu are ninjutsu. Is using chakra to do something. Can control elements, earth, fire, wind, water, and lightning. Can replace self with nearby objects. Can shape chakra into weapon or projectile. Is can do... a lot.

"Next is genjutsu. Is putting chakra in area or in target head to make illusion. I is no can do. Too much chakra is making me having too small control.

"Those are main jutsu types, but there are special types as well. Irou Jutsu can heal most damage. I is even seeing someone dead being revived, but the jutsu is taking the life of the user. Fuuinjutsu is using chakra and ink to make jutsu. Is writing out effect in special way, then activating to have effect occur. Kuchiyose Jutsu, makes user to summon creature or object with special contract.

"Then there are kekkei genkai, is like mutant but all same in family and is having special jutsu for using ability. There are many type of kekkei genkai. Most famous is doujutsu, abilities in eyes. I is knowing of two doujutsu. One is byakugan. When is used can see all around and inside and can see chakra. The other is sharingan. When is used, allows perfect copy of skills seen and know what opponent is about to do. Another type of kekkei genkai is special bodies. I is fighting one person, he is able to control bones. He is taking his bones out and using as weapons." Naruto shuddered in revulsion. "Another type is special chakra. Some are able to be mixing elements for creating different elements. The first hokage is mixing water and earth to create wood."

"Okay. On to the materials test," Tony said, beckoning Naruto over to a table that had a pile of rectangular material samples piled up. "Take each of these, and take them apart like this." Tony pulled and the rectangle split into two squares. "You stick one half in this spot on the conveyor belt as the control sample." Tony put one of the squares in a indentation on a conveyor belt that lead into the wall. "And you put your chakra into the other before putting it into the other hole." Tony handed the square to Naruto. Naruto pushed his chakra into the cold beige material. The surface began to crumble under his fingers. "Even if it turns to dust, put as much as you can into the receptacle and try not to mix things."

"Is looking easy enough," Naruto said, creating three clones and setting them to work.

Tony looked like he was going to say something about this, then decided against it.

"Ah..." Naruto looked at Tony nervously. "I is having another chakra. Is no natural. Is poisonous to human. I is only live because I get when I is born. Is you wanting to test? Maybe is doing damage to tools..."

"I can always build new ones," Tony said, "Anyway, I love challenges. Besides, this will give me more data to work with. Back on the platform and bring out this second chakra!"

Naruto complied, looking at tony nervously before his whisker marks darkened, his eyes turned red, and a red transparent tail swished behind him. A sense of dread and killing intent emanated from him, though it did not match his expression.

"That is intense kid."

"Is chakra from demon," Naruto explain, "Can no kill, can only seal with fuuinjutsu. When it is attacking, it is sealed in me."

"I bet people probably treated you pretty badly back in you home world," Tony said, receiving a confirming nod from Naruto, "It's not a matter of where the power comes from, it's how you use it that matters. Did you know that this used to be a weapons company? I don't actually allow my company to make weapons except for very special orders for people I know personally."

One of the instruments melted and sparks began to flare violently before the arm moved away from Naruto.

"Weapons used to be our primary business, now we focus on energy and technology. We changed because one day I was visiting a war zone where one of our new missiles was being demonstrated and I got a first hand demonstration of my own weapons. It turned out that we had been selling weapons to both sides of the war and I didn't even realize it. I was captured and ordered to make weapons that would be used to attack schools, hospitals and other soft targets. I didn't have any choice but to do what they said, so I began to work. What they didn't realize is that I wasn't building any sort of missile but the first generation of the Iron Man armor that I used to escape. After that I immediately stopped making weapons for others and started using my armors to stop the weapons I'd made in the past from hurting any more innocent people. Without my company to supply weapons, the war ended soon after and after a bit of a rough patch, I began making even more money with humanitarian technologies than I ever did with weapons.

"And it looks like we're done. I'd say you were wrong about that chakra being poisonous, it's more corrosive. There aren't many materials that will stand up to that. I'll get another box of samples delivered up here once you're finished with the other ones."

Tony took Naruto to the back of the room where a bunch of plates were anchored in frames. "These are different types of armored plating. I want you to use your spinning ball thing and try to put a hole in each of them. We'll see how fast you are able to do it and how much pressure you exert if you're able to get through them at all. Start at the first one."

Naruto formed a rasengan. The metal plate sheared away with little effort.

"Steel is almost useless," Tony noted. Naruto continued along the line, able to grind through all but two materials with varying degrees of effort. "I didn't expect you to break these two. This one is vibranium. It will disperse almost all energy attacks. The only thing that has proven to be effective is gamma radiation which makes it brittle and vulnerable to other attacks. The other is adamantium, true adamantium, not that cheap beta stuff, the same stuff your bones are coated with for some reason. True adamantium is basically indestructible even if it is bent with powerful magnetic fields it will snap back into place once released. How did you get an adamantium skeleton anyway?"

"When I is coming here I is injured and Wolverine is escaping. I is in bad spot and is captured. I is waking in tub with metal bones and many tubes of dead people. Only one other survived. We is escaping and Dr. Strange is finding us."

"Not many people know how to make adamantium or have the resources to acquire the materials needed to create it."

"Is not making now. I is exploding mountain." Naruto grinned.

"For people like this, that may not be enough to stop them," Tony said, "But on to more relevant subjects, can you get through those using the other chakra?"

Naruto summoned his demonic chakra and formed a rasengan. The vibranium shuddered for a moment before it exploded and disintegrated like sand under the attack.

"Congratulations. You've found a second weakness to vibranium," Tony said, "and cost me about half a million dollars, but that is not really that important. Try the adamantium."

The adamantium shuddered under the attack but held firm.

* * *

Level six really did not seem significantly harder than level three to X-23. She was in some sort of retail location. The scenario had started with a crowd, but it had dispersed when the three opponents had made their move.

One was a blond girl with a bob cut and a miniskirt over leggings that seemed to have some sort of mobility enhancement. She could bounce around like a kangaroo while performing spins and flips that would make any gymnast or ballerina jealous. Her kicks were quite powerful, but really seemed to have no fighting instinct at all.

The second was a feral boy. He had claws, but they didn't compare to hers and he did not have any healing factor or other physical enhancements. He attacked, swiping like a wild animal, completely ignoring defense. He was easy to deal with.

The third had a weak elemental ability. He had wild blond hair that spiked out as he charged his hands with electricity. He was a defensive fighter, attempting to paralyze her while she was distracted by the other two.

It was foolish of the three of them to reveal their abilities scaring the civilians. The feral boy came at her first, swiping wildly with his claws, trying to distract her from the fact that that ballerina was about to bring a kick down upon her head while the electric kid was sneaking up behind her in an attempt to finish her off. She could see the flaws in their attack plan easily.

The feral boy ignored his footing and thus didn't consider attacks to his legs. She bent at the knee and slammed her heel into the boy's ankle which cracked and twisted with the impact. He was using large arcing swipes, so they easily flew over her lowered height, but were just slow enough for his fall from his broken ankle to put one into her grasp. She spun and threw him as she kicked off the ground. The electric boy had just been standing there waiting for her to be pushed into him but received his partner instead. Now the acrobatic girl was coming down with a kick where she used to be. Without her there to receive the kick, the girl stumbled backwards on her landing, right into X-23's arms. With a quick jerk, the girl's neck was broken. X-23 walked forward to where the electric boy was still gasping for breath after having the feral boy thrown into him. She brought her boot down on his face and ended the simulation.

"Too easy. I did not even use any of my abilities," X-23 scoffed.

"As the levels get higher, the number and skill level of your opponents will increase. I've never gotten past level thirty where there are usually multiple omega level threats, people capable of leveling cities on their own or with immeasurable limits," Logan explained, "But if you get a bad draw against an omega level, you're not going to win because they will completely shut you down without even trying. Fortunately, omega levels don't start showing up until at least level twenty."

"At least crank it up to where I have to try," X-23 said.

"As you wish," Logan said as the scene changed to a train yard, "Enjoy level nine."

The first thing she noticed was that tanker cars were overly common in this train yard. The next was a hissing before she needed to dive out of the way. Hot gravel was launched into her face by a glowing something. She quickly dove between two cars and climbed a ladder to get a view of her opponent. She lay down on top of a box car, not wanting to be on a tanker if she was attacked by that burning thing again. The terrain was definitely against her. Peeking over the edge, she saw a teenager with red hair and a cut off leather jacket and shorts. It struck her as odd that he walked around bare foot, but he seemed used to it and did not flinch from the gravel and detritus. She could tell from the smirk on his face that he was the type to enjoy the hunt. A small rat made its way into view. At the sound, the boy spun, lashing out with his arm. Energy like a solar flare wreathed his arm and extended like a whip, turning the rat into a charred husk. He had good reflexes and a killer instinct, and based on his clothes, he could make those flares from any limb. Perhaps he would be a challenge.

* * *

The fist step to designing a proper kunai was to get the weights and balances right, so Naruto was understandably confused when his kunai looked like hammers, though no other kunai had fit his hand like these did.

"When we initially scanned you, we scanned your hands as well, so they are literally made to fit your hand. What we're checking for here is weight and balance. I want you close your eyes and go through the motions of throwing and fighting with each one and figure out which ones fit each actions best."

Naruto did just that. He would perform the movements for a slash each direction, a stab, a cross block, and a throw. When he was done, he had narrowed it down to three. One was good for throwing. One was good for fighting, and one was a good balance for doing either.

Next, Naruto watched as lasers cut out several new kunai from a block of iron with different lengths and thicknesses. The process was repeated twice more.

"The first set is the type you said would be good for throwing," Tony said, "So throw them and figure out which you like best."

It took a few tries, but some were quickly eliminated. He found he did the best with one that was fairly long and thin, but still hefty enough to fly straight.

With the second set, the balanced set, he found himself choosing a shape that almost exactly matched the Konoha standard. He supposed that they had a reason for making them the way they did since it seemed to work well.

The third set, the ones preferred for melee combat, he actually found he preferred thick and heavy kunai. They were almost as long as his forearm and almost as thick as his wrist. They could probably stand up to a sword built that sturdily.

Once this selection had been made, the fabricator went to work again making another set. These had different blade shapes meant to optimize different aspects. He didn't deviate from the standard diamond blade shape, despite the other options, though he chose a slightly flatter option for the throwing kunai which increased his range and accuracy a bit, though it lost sticking power.

* * *

X-23 raced through an urban environment built on the side of a mountain. Her primary opponent at level fifteen seemed to be a man with cybernetic enhancements and military training. He was strong, fast and skilled, but not really much of a threat to her on his own. The real difficulty was that he has a small army of semi-skilled allies that attacked from a distance with small arms, using their numbers to give each other a chance to escape whenever she got too close. She had already taken down a few of the weaker opponents, but that had been at the beginning before they had become organized. Now, she had to focus on their leader or else he kept setting traps and battlefields that favored him. She just needed to get close enough to him that his allies wouldn't risk firing, then it would be a simple matter of cleaning up the ones that remained.

* * *

The first set of shuriken Naruto tested for size were disks. For shuriken size, fit to the hand was more important than anything else. Naruto tried a few that were similar in size and selected one that felt the best when throwing. The next set had differing numbers of points from three to twelve and one retaining the circular design. Naruto choose the four pointed star. The next set chose the size of the hole in the center that could be used to wrap wire. Then he chose how deep the points went. He choose a hole large enough for a single finger to pass through with the breadth of a single finger between the hole and the spikes. The final choice was the shape of the points. Naruto chose a shape that resembled waves washing over the spin. It would give his shuriken a small curve in their flight, but more bite when they hit.

* * *

X-23 was finding that level seventeen was a challenge. Her opponent had strong telekinetic abilities and a minor healing factor. Whenever she got close, her opponent would just use her power to blast her away. They were in a wide open area, so she could not use subterfuge to get close enough to deal critical damage with her claws. She had been trying to defeat this opponent for almost an hour and they had just been standing there on the defensive whenever she got close.

"Need a pointer?" Wolverine asked, chuckling as she got blasted away again.

X-23 growled and charged in a berserker rage, knowing that it would be no different than her last attack.

"Psychic type abilities require their users to focus. If you distract them, give them a bump on the head, or just keep their mind off you, they can't use their powers against you. Even the professor either focuses on one person or uses his abilities on everyone. The only time I've seen psychic type abilities multitasking is when they are moving multiple objects to the same goal."

X-23 knew what to do. Naruto would have just used clones, but she was sure she could rig up a simple catapult and, along with an armload of rocks, it would be enough to serve her purposes.

* * *

Naruto held a three bladed shuriken with swept back blades as long as his arm. He had found that fewer blades was better with the fuuma and that the back curved blades increased the slashing power. This one did not have a folding mechanism since it was not possible to built with the simple laser cutting fabrication method they were using for the prototypes and Tony wanted to do more work on it so that the blades would be even when they released while holding solidly in place.

* * *

X-23 finished recovering from level nineteen. She had faced three strong, highly skilled opponents. It had been an exhilarating battle.

"I am prepared for level twenty!" she announced, her usual flat tone was now charged with excitement.

"I'm not so sure that is the best idea. Level nineteen seemed to give you quite a challenge. Level twenty might push you too far for now," Wolverine suggested.

"I can handle it. Besides, this cannot kill me because of the safety protocols," X-23 insisted.

"Fine, but don't complain if you get something you can't handle."

X-23 was faced with a barren apocalyptic landscape. The scraps of civilization could be seen with half buried girders and scrap metal jutting from the dirt. Floating in front of her was a man in red body armor and a purple cape. She suddenly felt a tingling sensation then cries out as her limbs snap out and are held straight as if crucified.

"Just like Logan. Interesting," a man's voice came from under the shadows of the helmet he wore.

She saw him twirl his finger and her body spun in place like a ballerina. Her arms snapped down to her sides and she floated over to the man. She growled helplessly but the man only chuckled. She couldn't even move her jaw to curse him. She could see he was just an old man, but he seemed to have some kind of control over her. She understood when the metal girders tore themselves from the ground and formed themselves into a throne for the man and he lightly perched on the edge of it.

"Now what to do with you? I wonder?" The man asked.

Her claws began to snake their way out against her will. Her claw moved up under her chin, then the simulation paused and she fell to the ground and regained full control of her body.

"That was Eric Lehnsherr, also known as Magneto. He is an omega level mutant, and the only one programmed into this room that I have never beaten. Because of the metal in our bones, we can't hide from him and once he decides we're worth paying attention to, we're completely at his mercy because we don't have any energy projection abilities. Even if we did, he is very good at using the metal around him to defend himself and that helmet protects him from all mental attacks. He can even use the iron in a person's blood to attack them."

* * *

Ninja wire was the toughest challenge. It needed to be as flexible as string, yet without sag when strung. It needed to be strong enough to hold people with superhuman strength, but be easily cut to length with even a dull blade. It needed all this while being as fine as human hair.

"I don't see how this is possible," Tony said, "There isn't any material with these properties. How do they make this in your world?"

"I think they is putting chakra inside and is making all straight and strong when stretching."

"So it takes some special form like carbon nanotubes but with steel," Tony postulated.

"If is no possible for one wire, can make strong wire and hidden wire. In Konoha is many sizes, but most use only one because is good enough."

"That might be the only way unless you wanted to upgrade to more high tech solutions."

"No, is good. Is simple, but is many ways to use," Naruto said.

"Then, I should have a battle-ready weapon ready for you in a week. And, once you get some money, I can start making some of these other ninja tools for you. And now Pepper will know that you know me and will make sure you don't have to work so hard for an appointment."

Naruto sighed. "Is not so easy. Where can I go for pay to be fighting?"

"Your best chance would be to find a bunch of rich people and offer your services as a bodyguard. I could certainly use someone of your talents a few times a month. With your clones, you could probably handle the security for an entire event rather than hiring a large team. I could also use them as test subjects for new technologies to make sure they are safe for people to use."

"X-23 could be helping too. She is having all powers of wolverine. Is having metal bones and claws and heals very fast. Is knowing about weapons and technology that I is not."

"I'm sure the two of you make a fine team," Tony agreed.

* * *

Naruto returned to the sanctum to find X-23 already resting on the couch of the living room. She looked satisfied, though not exhausted. Her stamina matched or perhaps even exceeded his own.

"Your day is good?" Naruto asked.

"It was a challenge," X-23 said, "The danger room creates very realistic scenarios and opponents. It did not become boring nor repetitive."

"Tony Stark is making weapon for me," Naruto said, "He is also saying he maybe ask me for doing protecting and testing missions for money and maybe you too."

"A job that matches our skills would be desirable," X-23 agreed, "As well as money to spend on additional equipment and perhaps some luxury items."


	7. 1-7 Who I Am

**Arc 1 - A New World - Chapter 7: Who I Am**

* * *

X-23 was at the library again, hoping to find a name. Today, there was a woman by the children's section reading a book aloud to a group. X-23 stopped her search for names and joined the listeners, wondering if one of the characters in the book being read would have a name she would like.

* * *

Naruto was practicing his wind clone. It had taken a lot of effort, but he had advanced the clone to the point where it was both resilient, strong, opaque, and had a deadly wind blast when violently dispelled. They could dispel with only a gentle breeze when doing so voluntarily.

The seal sequence was: dog to gather wind chakra, boar to make the wind solid, dog to increase the amount of wind, ram to increase the power of the wind, monkey to give the gathered chakra shape, boar to stabilize it, and finally the clone seal to form the partially molded chakra into wind elemental shadow clones. It was six hand seals and it took Naruto a great deal of concentration to get it right, but it worked as well as he could ever hope for it to work.

He knew the jutsu inside and out and couldn't think of any way to improve upon it that wouldn't come with an unacceptable cost. It would be slow enough in battle already. He knew that seals could be eliminated with practice, but Naruto wondered how. Perhaps if he learned how to make wind chakra without using the dog seal he could cut out three hand seals at once. A three seal jutsu wasn't bad, it was no worse than the replacement and since his chakra was naturally aligned with wind, it should be the easiest element for him to learn.

Naruto formed a dog seal and focused chakra, feeling how the chakra compared to when he formed the ram seal. This chakra became sharp and flowed freely like a slashing blade thrown through the air and twisting like a ribbon in the wind. Pressure and sharpness were what he felt. He needed to replicate that feeling. Naruto drew up his chakra and tried to form it like the dog seal had, but couldn't tell if he has succeeding. He needed some measure of progress. He got a piece of paper and tore off a square, concentrating on the cutting aspect of the wind chakra. His chakra flowed into the paper and nothing happened.

Naruto formed the dog seal while focusing chakra into the paper. This time the paper was cut nearly in half. Not for the first time Naruto marveled at the way that knowledge of how the hand signs worked made making and modifying jutsu easier. It made him wish he had paid more attention to the boring lectures in the academy. Things like this really hadn't seemed so important then, but now he could see the practical benefits. He wondered if he could use wind to make his rasengan stronger. That was a project for another time, when he was actually good with using wind. He found the sheet of paper with the details of his rasengan and wrote down a reminder to try to make it using wind chakra.

* * *

Everyone had started moving. The story wasn't over but the woman had stopped reading.

"I'll be back next week at ten to continue," the reader said, "if you want to come by and listen."

X-23 had found she enjoyed listening to a book being read aloud. It was peaceful and relaxing. She had almost fallen asleep despite the number of unfamiliar people nearby.

"Can you tell me what book you were reading?" X-23 asks.

"It's Little House on the Prairie by Laura Wilder," the woman responded, "I chose the book because my name is Laura as well."

X-23 nodded. "I will come again if I have no conflicting engagements."

* * *

X-23 and Naruto arrived at the Xavier institute and headed towards the Danger Room with Wolverine.

"I have decided on my name," X-23 announced suddenly.

"Nani!?" Naruto, surprised, spun to face her. "What name?"

"Don't leave us in suspense," her father added gruffly.

"I have decided on Laura Logan," she said.

"Got some alliteration working for you there," Wolverine said with a grin.

"Is nice name, but Laura Uzumaki is better!" Naruto said, causing her to blush, "Then you is being like my sister!"

"I don't want to be your sister," Laura said a little harshly, causing Wolverine to laugh and Naruto to get depressed. "But, I don't mind the name..." This confused Naruto even more.

"Come on, we're burning daylight and there is training to be done." Logan shoved the two teens forward towards the danger room.

"Let's start at level fifteen today," Laura suggests.

* * *

Naruto put down his slip of paper as Dr. Strange entered the room. The paper had a small cut in the edge.

"I just received a call from Mr. Stark. He has a package for you to pick up this afternoon, and he thinks you're going to like it."

* * *

Naruto arrived at Stark Tower and found that they really had taken his suggestions to heart. Not only were there now two walls creating an airlock type entrance but there were separate ones for entry and exit. The guard recognized him immediately and Naruto grinned sheepishly at him and stepped through the first door. Sirens went off.

"If you are carrying any metal objects, please remove them for inspection."

"Is having only clothes," Naruto whined.

"Please step out of the booth."

Naruto backed out into the entrance hall and watched as a robot entered the little room from the other side before the door opened for him again. When Naruto entered the chamber again, the robot held out a rod that squealed whenever it came close to Naruto. The doors sealed and the guard picked up the phone. After a few minutes of talking the second door opened and Naruto was gestured through.

"Mister Stark explained about your bones setting off the sensors. You will be receiving special authentication so you won't need to go through the usual process from now on," the guard said. "Take elevator one, it will take you to Mister Stark."

Naruto went to the bay of elevators. One opened for him automatically and he entered. It rose rapidly, stopping at the top floor where Tony was waiting for him.

"I think you'll be happy with what I came up with," Tony said, leading Naruto to the same lab he had been tested in. On a small pedestal was a strange looking dagger. It had a black ring at the end of the handle like a kunai. The blade was diamond shaped, almost the same as the melee kunai he helped design, but the middle of the blade was hollow and it was sharpened both inside and out. Most of the blade was a dull black color. Only the sharp edges were a vibrant bluish silver, a tint that Naruto recognized well from being on the end of Laura's claws during sparring.

"This blade is mostly composed of an alloy of osmium, iron, and nickle. This special allow is extremely dense and strong without becoming especially brittle and best of all uses only elements that work well with your chakra. The blade edges are made of a vibranium filament coated with lead, then a layer of adamantium. Because of the adamantium, you can block edge on without worrying about damaging the blade and cut through pretty much any material with enough force. Now, the real test. Naruto pick up that blade and try to stab through that sheet of armored steel."

Naruto took the dagger, he could not really refer to such a modified weapon as a kunai anymore, and stabbed it into the indicated slab of metal with all his purely physical strength. It embedded itself about a quarter of an inch into the metal.

"As expected. Now, this time, channel a little chakra into the weapon when you do it," Tony suggested.

Naruto focused a small amount of chakra into the blade and felt it begin to hum. It was kind of tingly in his hand. He thrust his hand forward and the dagger only stopped because his fist had slammed against the plating. The dagger had gone in up to the hilt and he had not noticed the resistance.

"SUGOI!" Naruto cheered. He stabbed and sliced at the metal plating. No, there was resistance, he just hadn't noticed it at first. It was like cutting through a thick gel.

"Are you done?" Tony asked once Naruto had reduced his target to scrap metal.

Naruto flushed and nodded.

"Now for the important information. Don't use your red chakra in the blade or you will destroy the vibranium. It is designed in a way that it is possible to replace, but only by destroying everything except the adamantium, and that would cost you more than you're likely to make in a year of work. Without the vibranium, all you have is a very strong knife. It's the reaction between the vibranium and your chakra that causes ultra-high-frequency vibrations that disperses matter in front of it, or if the matter is dense enough, grinds it away like your rasengan but focuses at a single point. The real trick when building this weapon was isolating your hand from the vibrations enough that you could hold on to it," Tony preened. He then went back to the pedestal and picked up a metal box shapes like a pentagon with one tip elongated that had a leather fastener on one side. "And so you don't accidentally stab yourself or anyone else, I'm throwing in a free magnetic holster. The blade will never touch the sides so you don't have to worry about breaking it, and it adds a little push to speed up your quick draw. I recommend practicing that somewhere safe though."

Getting an idea, Naruto formed a dog seal and focused wind chakra into the blade. He needed to try three times before he noticed when he stopped passing through air and started passing through steel. He really wanted to master wind chakra now.

* * *

Now that he had a weapon, Naruto found that he wasn't at such a big disadvantage sparring against Laura. Her foot claws were still a factor he had trouble with, but things were a lot more even now when they went all out.

His wind clones were proving to be especially troublesome for her. Since she had no ranged attacks, she had to take the full brunt of their explosions every time and they often caused chain reactions. Unfortunately for Naruto, he sometimes got caught up in those chain reactions as well.

His fortified clones were extremely adept at using his ninja skills to get in a suicidal attack. Sometimes it was just a punch, other times it was a rasengan to the face.

"Your abilities are impressive, but your hand to hand still sucks," Laura commented after a particularly brutal exchange that left them both bloodied and healing, "But, you are getting faster."

"Is getting used to having metal bones. Was much faster before," Naruto replied.

The two by mutual unspoken consent stopped for a breather. They had been battling for almost three hours. Had they not been in the astral field, there probably would not have been much of the Sanctum left standing. Had anyone not known them, they would have thought the two wanted to kill each other.

The door opened and Dr. Strange called out, "Naruto, I've finished analyzing the seal. If you could come to my study, I'll explain what I've found."

"Hai!" Naruto got to his feet, then helped Laura up, twitching his head sideways in a way that meant that he'd like it if she came along but she didn't have to if she didn't want to. He knew she sometimes got jealous that he has some somewhat mystical aspects just as he sometimes got jealous of her claws. But then, she would probably get jealous if left out as well. Since she was his best friend and already knew about his demon, he really didn't have anything he needed to hide from her. Her life literally started the moment he rescued her, so there was nothing he didn't know about her. He'd never had anyone like that before, either they were keeping secrets from him or he was keeping secrets from them. He grinned happily as she followed him.

The study was full of papers. Some were in piles. Some were hung on the walls. Some were spread out on the floor so the interconnecting designs would have room to be displayed. One large piece was on Dr. Strange's desk and depicted his seal in its compressed form. The three sat down in front of the paper.

"I could tell two things immediately when I first examined the seal. First, whoever made the seal was a genius of sealing. I have only seen one or two mystical arrays of comparable skill created by mortals. Second, he has never sealed a demon before or the knowledge to do it properly was not available on your world."

Naruto shrugged. "I is not knowing."

"We'll start out with this spiral in the center. Do you know what this is?" Dr. Strange asked.

"Is like put in seal I is showing first day," Naruto said.

"Yes, it creates an extra-dimensional pocket that is linked to your chakra system. It is a very large space because it needs to hold something very powerful and it constantly drains a small amount of your energy to keep it from degrading. This was very smart because otherwise the demon would eventually begin to corrode the seal because of the nature of its chakra and it would eventually escape. It also has one other function. It connects the demon directly to your chakra system. When you die and your chakra disperses, the demon will follow and there is a chance that it would actually be dragged all the way into the afterlife. I wouldn't bet on it though."

"Kyuubi is always saying he is only giving chakra because if I die he die," Naruto confirmed.

"And this is probably the only reason the demon hasn't tried to break the seal by killing you, which it is more than capable of doing thanks to a small mistake on the part of the person who made the seal. Now the next important part is the eight pillars. These are the restraints that keep the demon inside. These are largely based on your own willpower and use the power of the elements wood, metal, air, and fire. Now here is where the mistake lies. This eight pillar seal is made of two four pillar seals. They could have sealed the chakra away completely, but they wanted you to be able to use it. You can see here that there is a small break on either side of the seal. This allows unfiltered demonic chakra through and into your system."

"Is really bad?"

"Unfiltered chakra is still controlled by the demon. That means that you always had small amounts of chakra inside your body that the demon could use to directly influence you. When you drew on more, you gave the demon more influence. Frankly, it's a testament to your incredible willpower that the demon did not take over your mind when you were still an infant, but there were side effects. Visibly, you always have your whisker marks. If the demonic chakra was filtered, those would disappear. You also think more like the demon, more like a wild animal. You find intellectual pursuits boring and prefer to work your body and fight. You were probably never thought of as very smart, but Laura praises your spur of the moment battle tactics. It would probably take an example of how something could be used to make something explode before you bothered to learn it."

Naruto blushed as he thought about his recent interest in hand seals and wind chakra.

"If filter is added, I change?" Naruto asked.

"No, not right away at least. Your personality is shaped by experience as well and you have had your whole life living as you are. You wouldn't suddenly like books, but you might not find it such a chore to read when you think the information will be useful to you. You won't suddenly become a strategic genius, but you might start leaping into battle with a plan in mind once in a while, rather than thinking of one after you've engaged the enemy. Of course these are only guesses. For all I know, the demon barely had any influence at all over your personality, but I know it wasn't a lot because I know you aren't a bad person."

Naruto looked down in embarrassment and blushed.

"Now, this hole is not a fixed size, it can be loosened or tightened, but it requires a key which we don't have. I have no plans to mess with it, so I don't see any reason why that matters other than the fact that there were arrangements made to allow for more or less of the demon chakra to regularly leech into your system."

Dr. Strange paused for a moment, rubbing his fingers through his beard.

"Now, naturally, that is all the super simplified version of how the seal works. But, there is one more thing left that I am not sure how to explain to you." He pointed to two almost identical blobs of ink. "These are the one thing that make me question what my next course of action should be. First, I'll explain how I intend to fix your seal. I am going to add a double gate filter to your seal that will essentially remove all direct influence either of you can have on the other. You will still be able to communicate, but the barrier between you will be wider so you might have to shout. What this seal will do is create two barriers that only allow chakra to pass with a filter in the middle that will convert the chakra to a neutral state, removing all will, control, and manipulation from it. In essence, it will become the chakra of the next person to touch it without having to wait for the body to forcibly filter it. If the demon allowed you to use all of its chakra, you could use it all without any worries of it influencing you."

Naruto grinned excitedly and asked, "When can you do this?"

"That depends on what you want to do about these two spots," Dr. Strange said, "We could do it today, but these two spots seem to hold the chakra memories, and maybe even parts of the souls of other people. I think they were placed here as fail safes in case the demon tried to escape or you tried to release it. I do not know who these people are, but they are most certainly from your world. If I added the filter, you would never meet them, because they would be purified even if they did activate."

Naruto felt his heart thump loudly in his chest. He wondered who could have had a part of themselves sealed inside of him. Perhaps the Sandaime, or Yondaime. Perhaps Ero-sennin. Maybe, he could barely handle the thought that just maybe it just might be his parents.

"Can you do anything?" Naruto asked.

"I might be able to remove them into objects. You could then talk to them while meditating as you now talk to the demon. If I do this, however, your seal will become unstable and you won't be able to use chakra for several weeks. It will then take time for the seal to stabilize. Once the seal stabilizes you may use chakra, but if you use the demon chakra before he filter is put on, the demon may escape since many of the protections will be damaged."

"I want to meet them," Naruto said resolutely. Even if it was none of the people he had envisioned, they would surely be people who could teach him and his eventual children ninja skills if he was unable to remember all that stuff he'd never paid attention to in the academy.

"I thought you would. I already prepared the ritual," Dr. Strange said with a knowing smile, "I would have done the same in your place. After this, however, you will not be working on anything that uses chakra until I give you permission. You may study seals, and work on you hand to hand, but no jutsu."

"Hai!" Naruto agreed.

"And, unless you want me to banish him to a hell dimension of eternal torment, you'll make sure he follows the rules," Dr. Strange addressed Laura who nodded seriously, knowing this wasn't an idle threat.

Dr. Strange led them to a ritual room that had a seal drawn out in blood. There were two branching seals off of it, one containing a red crystal bead, the other containing a blue crystal bead.

"Take off your shirt and lay down so your head is in that circle, your hands are over those weaves, and you seal is completely contained within the empty section in the center," he instructed.

Naruto tossed his top to Laura and lay as instructed. Dr. Strange took out a brush and a pot of blood and began to draw on Naruto's body, connecting two dots on his seal up his torso and along his arms. Naruto could feel his body stiffen as the magical circuit was complete and the magic began to flow as the Sorcerer Supreme began to chant. Then there was a lot of pain. Then there was something that made that pain feel like ultimate pleasure in comparison. Naruto could not even open his jaw to cry out in agony as he passed out.

* * *

Laura placed herself behind Naruto and pulled him up into a seated position. He had been unconscious for three days now with a terrible fever. She took a glass of cold water and pressed it against his lips, letting a small amount trickle into his mouth as she stroked his throat and made him swallow so he wouldn't choke. It was important for him to stay hydrated. She had spent the past few days wiping the sweat from his body and replacing his fluids. It worried her that with his healing he was still unconscious. The one thing that she was thankful for was that their landlord knew a spell to keep bowels and bladders empty so she had not needed to worry about cleaning up any other messes for him. She lay him back down and dipped the wash cloth in the bucket of water.

"Your father called," Dr. Strange interrupted as she was wiping down his chest, "He wants to know if you want to test some new training scenarios for him."

"No," Laura responded flatly, returning her attention to Naruto.

"You know, he's going to be okay," Dr. Strange assured her, "The seal is already beginning to stabilize."

Laura grunted in halfhearted acknowledgment.

"How about I leave this with you to give to him," Dr. Strange suggested. At first glance it looked like a black cord. On closer inspection it seemed to be a necklace made of some sort of black hair woven together. Two inches apart from the middle of the necklace were the two beads from the ritual.

Laura accepted the object that Naruto had gone through this suffering to acquire. She hoped it was worth it.

* * *

Naruto stirred. He was feeling hot and heavy and like crap in general. His chakra control was completely shot, it was if his chakra was trying to burst right out of his chakra coils. Jolts of pain periodically ripped through his body. Even having a chidori shoved through his lung had not felt as bad as this. Naruto forced his eyelids open a crack and hissed at the brightness. His eyes had been all crusted with gunk and it scratched his eyes when he blinked. He rubbed the offending stuff away, biting back a groan at the pain in his arms.

Now awake, Naruto took in his surroundings. He was in his room. The clock read that it was four in the morning. The weight on his stomach that he had at first not noticed through the pain was Laura. She was sleeping, her brow was furrowed worriedly. Naruto reached out and tentatively stroked her hair. The reaction was instantaneous. He was flat on the bed with the stroking hand twisted almost to the breaking point and claws at his throat before her eyes were even open.

"Good morning?" Naruto greeted, "I sleep long?"

"A little over three days," Laura replied, allowing her claws to retract. "How are you feeling?"

"Is good except for hurting everywhere," Naruto replied with a weak laugh. Even that pained him. He hoped this wouldn't last long.

"Dr. Strange left this for you," Laura took the necklace out of her pocket and handed it to Naruto.

Naruto felt a sudden drain on his chakra reserves as seal arrays flared on the beads. He quickly realized that if the spirits were originally only meant to be temporary, they needed to get energy from somewhere. He also noticed the drain seemed to have smoothed out his chakra flow a bit and the pain had reduced. He couldn't wait to find out who was inside. If it was the old man, it would be great to see him again. If it was Jiraiya, maybe he could help fix his summoning problem. If it was his parents... What if they had abandoned him because of Kyuubi. He looked at the gems in trepidation. What if whoever was inside would be angry at him for having the seal tampered with. Naruto clutched the beads in his fist, no longer sure he wanted to meet them.

"Are you going to talk to them?" Laura asked.

"What if they don't like me, if they think I am the demon, if they are angry at me for messing with the seal?" Naruto looked at Laura with pleading eyes.

"Show me how to go with you. If they do that, I will cut them," she said.

Naruto gave her a small grin, then took her left hand in his with the blue crystal between before he lost his nerve. "Close your eyes and empty your mind of all thoughts except of entering the seal with me," Naruto said, "And hope it works." Naruto concentrated, using the meditation exercises the perverted hermit had taught him.

* * *

Naruto and Laura were standing in a blue expanse. Across from them stood Naruto's hero, the man who had sealed the demon within Naruto, the fourth hokage.

The fourth gave Naruto a grin and a wave before saying, "Yo, Naruto. Long time no see."

Naruto gave a ghoulish expression, pointed and yelled, "How did you know my name!?"

The man gave him a deadpan expression. "What kind of crappy father would I be if I didn't even know my own son's name?"

"You can't be my father! I'm an orphan!"

"Well, summoning the death god is not something people live through, and when your parents die, you become orphans. What part of me being your father is so hard to understand? We have the same eyes, the same hair, the same shape face, though you definitely take after your mother's personality."

"So, you're really my dad?" Naruto asked, slowly approaching the man.

"Yep! Minato Namikaze, Fourth Fire Shadow, Hero of the Third Ninja War, Creator of the Spiraling Sphere, Master of the Flying Thunder God, Summoner of the Toads!" He posed, then noted Naruto's deadpan expression. "What? Jiraiya insisted I learn something from him and I refused to learn how to be a pervert."

Naruto nodded sagely, then punched the man in the face. "That's for sealing a demon in me you bastard!" Before he could recover, Naruto tackle-hugged the man and cried into his chest. "Why didn't anyone ever tell me?"

"If anyone had known you were my son, you probably would have been dead within a week. I may have been popular with the general population of Konoha, but those in power hated my guts. It would have only been a matter of time before an Iwa nin mysteriously got a hold of you. It's also the reason we gave you your mother's name. The Uzumaki clan was all but wiped out with the destruction of Whirlpool during the second war. There was no reason to hunt a straggler from the Uzumaki clan."

After a few minutes, Naruto calmed down. He separated himself from his father, wiped his face and regained his decorum.

"Now that we've finished with that, I've got a question. Does the Nine Tails usually appear as a teenage girl?"

Naruto smirked, then giggled, then collapsed into all out debilitating laughter. "If he had tried that, he might have actually succeeded in taking over my body." Naruto beckoned Laura over. "Laura, this is my father, apparently, the fourth fire shadow, and the man who sealed the demon in my gut. Dad, this is my best friend and fellow lab rat Laura, a real, human girl."

"Then where is the Nine Tails?" Minato asked.

"Right where you left him," Naruto said, "You're the one that moved."

"Naruto, you shouldn't have done that. If the Nine Tails tries to escape, I need to be there to restore the seal."

"It only be an issue after the seal stabilizes. We removed the two spirits in the seal because a new chakra filter is being put on that would have neutralized any chakra including yours that was passing through the seal. With this new filter, the Nine Tails could pump every ounce of his power into me and not influence me at all. It works both ways though."

"I can't believe that Jiraiya came up with a solution like this. He was always good, but not that good."

"He didn't," Naruto said, "We're no longer in the Elemental Nations. Orochimaru used a technique that was supposed to erase me from existence, but I was able to break through the dimensional barrier. We are in a new world now. I was weak after that and captured by people who like to experiment like Orochimaru. Now I have unbreakable metal bones. She does too, but she has built in claws. We both heal really fast though and we were the only ones to survive the experiment. We escaped and eventually met Dr. Strange. He is this universe's expert on gods, demons, and beings from other dimensions."

"Be careful Naruto. You never know what someone with that kind of power might want."

"I know. I have to listen to him about the Kyuubi. If I become a danger to this universe, he has to banish me to a hell dimension where the Kyuubi can't do any harm and I'm definitely not going to like that. But, it's not like he's a bad guy. I've talked to some of the heroes in this world. This guy is definitely legitimate, and if we run into trouble we have a backup location we can stay."

"Good. Always be prepared. An unprepared ninja is a dead ninja," Minato quoted sagely.

"That was in one of those academy textbooks I never read, wasn't it," Naruto deadpanned.

Minato sighed in exasperation. "Why don't you tell me what your life back in Konoha was like," he suggested.

"I had a double level ANBU guard until I was three... Well that's what was said in my file when I broke in to the old man's office." Naruto gave a nervous laugh, "One to make sure I was safe, and one to make sure the other was doing his job. During this time I was poisoned at least once a week. I was rescued from the trash twice. I was admitted to the hospital for starvation, severe beatings, and the ability to fall down more flights of stairs than any building contained. Then Weasel got assigned to my ANBU guard detail and most of the incidents stopped and a lot of ANBU suddenly drafted suicide missions.

"When I was five, he was reassigned for some urgent task that wasn't listed in my file. Without him there, the orphanage went back to their old ways. One day, I went outside and when I tried to come back, I was beaten until I left. I slept in the woods drank from streams and ate from garbage cans at night since it wasn't safe to go out during the day.

"It took two weeks before Inu had a shift on my guard detail and informed the old man that I wasn't at the orphanage. There was a fire at the orphanage two days later. Miraculously none of the children were harmed, but none of the adults survived having 'heroically given their lives to save the children'.

"Inu had a guard shift at least twice a week after that when he didn't have other missions. Now that I think about it, Inu was Kakashi-sensei. He was a good bodyguard, but a crappy teacher. Taught me for over a year and all I learned was tree climbing. Strangely the Uchiha learned half a dozen new jutsu including Kakashi's own jutsu and that is not a pleasant thing to get shoved through your lung."

Minato sat, his face like stone as he listened to Naruto's story, but Naruto could feel his father's muscles twitching in anger.

"So, I was given an allowance and an apartment by the old man. It was in the worst part of town, but I think it was the only place he could get to accept. I think he had blackmail material on the owner or something. Anyway, it didn't matter that I had an allowance since I wasn't allowed into any of the stores, and the ones I was allowed into I was charged a lot more for things that were rotten or poisoned. I ended up eating out of the trash more often than not until I discovered a coupon for a free meal at Ichiraku Ramen. Since I couldn't read because the orphanage claimed that demons didn't deserve to read, I didn't know what anything on the menu was, but they were nice to me, so I just picked something at random. It was terrible, but I ate I because I couldn't afford to waste food. When I was finished, they actually asked me to come again, even though many people had left because I had been there. They even offered to teach me to read so next time I could pick something I actually liked. I always spent all my allowance there and was soon able to read the whole menu.

"When I was six, the old man let me enroll in the academy. The teacher hated me. He would call me names and throw things at me and wouldn't answer any of my questions. I never knew if I answered anything right because I always got zeros on my tests. I failed and got the same teacher next year. He liked to talk about how I was such a dead last that I could not even pass the first year of the academy. The name stuck, and soon everyone was calling me the dead last. I failed again but I was really pissed off at the guy so I retaliated and began pranking. The next years class was important. It had the heirs of the Uchiha, Hyuuga, Aburame, Yamanaka, Nara, Akamichi, and Inuzuka clans. They switched the teachers. This year it was Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-teme. Iruka-sensei's parents were killed by the Nine Tails, so he tried to ignore me. Mizuki pretended to be nice, but he sabotaged my hand to hand training by telling me he was teaching me advanced forms. This time I managed to pass, barely, but everything was so boring, which was partly your fault according to Dr. Strange.

"I tried to take the early graduation test twice with my original classes, but I could never perform the clone jutsu no matter how much I practiced. On the day before my class graduated, I painted the Hokage Monument while wearing bright orange in broad daylight and didn't get caught until I was finished. Iruka-sensei finally realized that I wasn't a demon and just needed some attention and offered to take me to Ichiraku's for ramen when I finished cleaning the monument. I ate well that night. Once again, I failed to make even a single clone on the test and failed. I was really depressed when Mizuki told me about a secret makeup test where I had to steal a certain forbidden scroll and learn a jutsu from it. It turned out it was a trick and Mizuki was a traitor working for Orochimaru. I learned the shadow clone jutsu, beat up Mizuki, saved Iruka, and became a ninja."

"Why wasn't Jiraiya there? He was your godfather. He was supposed to protect you. If he didn't want the responsibility he could have..."

"I convinced Jiraiya to train me for the chunin exams after Kakashi abandoned me with the closet pervert. Then he took me on as his apprentice. He's not too bad once you get him to stop being a pervert for a few minutes. If he was being really bad, I could use my sexy jutsu to convince him to do pretty much anything."

"Sexy jutsu?" Laura asked.

"I'm not sure I should," Naruto said, looking to his father for help. This was sure to end badly for him.

"I wish to see it."

Naruto sighed, then performed the hand seals. With a poof of smoke, a female version of himself was posed there with only a few wisps of smoke protecting her modesty. Laura reached out and poked Naruto's breast, causing him to squeal.

"Bouncy," Laura muttered.

"Naruto, the transformation technique isn't supposed to be solid," Minato pointed out, holding his nose and doing his best not to perv out on his own son.

"I was messing with the transformation technique and accidentally created this. It is amazing how many uses this technique has." Naruto was trying to keep a straight face as Laura hefted his breasts and tested them for weight. "Laura," Naruto said sweetly, "Would you like it if I played with your breasts?"

"Not in front of your father," Laura said, "You require more modesty."

Naruto turned red and released the technique as his father laughed.

After a moment Minato shook his head. "I almost wish I hadn't saved that village."

"It was not so bad," Naruto said, "More and more people came to know me for me every day. Things became a lot better after I was a ninja. I gained more and more precious people."

Naruto told his father about the bell test, D-rank missions, the mission to wave, the chunin exams, finding Tsunade, Sasuke's defection, his three year training trip with Jiraiya, and rescuing Gaara from Akatsuki and finally the mission that led to his being thrust into a new dimension.

"You've really done a lot for someone so young. I'm proud of you," Minato said, ruffling Naruto's hair, "Now why don't you show me some of those awesome skills.

"I guess I should start with my best," Naruto said as he formed the familiar clone seal, "Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!" Over a thousand clones spread out in all directions.

Minato's jaw dropped in amazement. "You must learn insanely fast if you can train with this many clones."

"Huh?" Naruto looked at his father quizzically.

"You mean that you've never noticed?" Minato asked, exasperated, "And none of your teachers ever told you?"

"Noticed what?" Naruto asked.

"The shadow clone technique was originally created as a safe way to perform infiltration missions. Anything the clone experiences, it is like you experienced it as well. If a clone reads a book, it's the same as if you read the book. If the clone learns a technique, it's the same as if you learn the technique. If a clone practices chakra control, it is the same as if you practice chakra control. Anything that can be trained purely with what you know your shadow clones can train for you. But, if you want to get stronger, faster, or have a larger chakra capacity, you need to train your own body. You also need to be careful when training like this. If you lose too many clones at once, you will receive mental backlash. It could give you a headache, knock you out, or in extreme cases kill you. This jutsu wasn't in the forbidden scroll just because of its high chakra requirement. You'll also want to have a clone dispel every once in a while, especially when they make a break through, to make sure you aren't relearning the same thing over and over again and so that you can pass on the benefits of what has already been learned and keep the clones moving forward. Of course, you can't practice this until you get your seal fixed because using so much chakra would put too much strain on your seal."

Naruto sighed and dispelled a clone, paying close attention and realizing that his father was right about the memories as he remembered seeing himself talking with his father. He dispelled the rest in a wave.

"I also created my own versions of the shadow clone," Naruto said, "This one is the hardened shadow clone. Try to dispel it." Naruto formed the clone. When Minato punched it, it didn't dispel and punched him back.

"Ow," Minato deadpanned, "Wasn't expecting that."

"You need to hit hard enough to kill or at least break bones. They are easier to destroy with sharp things. Any decent cut will take them out, but they dispel slower so they can almost always get a suicide hit in if the strike isn't instantly lethal."

"That is actually very impressive," Minato said. His hand slashed out with a faint blue glow, creating a gash across the clone's chest and obliterating the clone.

"My next one, I call the target clone. I let my chakra spread out into the air, then I can form a clone anywhere my chakra is. I can combine it with my other clones but it takes a lot more chakra." He performed the technique and caused a clone to appear behind his father with its arm around the man's neck in a choke hold. A sharp elbow dispelled the clone.

"Sneaky. You could sneak up on anyone who couldn't sense chakra."

"And my third original technique is my wind element shadow clone." Naruto went through the six seals and found the technique came much easier than the last time he had tried it. As Minato prepared to destroy it, Naruto stopped him. "Can you do the shadow clone technique? If not, then it would be better to stand back. This one is dangerous when destroyed."

"Okay," Minato formed a shadow clone and the wind clone led it away far enough that it should be safe.

The clash lasted for a fraction of a second before Minato's clone was victorious. Naruto's clone burst in an expanding dome of wind more powerful than anticipated. Minato, Naruto, and Laura covered their faces to protect them from the wild cutting winds.

"I see why I didn't want to be close to that," Minato said, looking at the bloody state of his arms.

"Was stronger than usual," Naruto pointed out, his own wounds already healing. He felt a sudden drain of chakra and a blue mist coalesced around Minato, restoring him to his previous condition.

"That was odd. I was expecting to disappear, not to get healed. My time should pretty much be up."

"Nope. Your new container takes chakra from whoever holds you to keep you going, and I have a lot of chakra." Naruto grinned. "You're stuck with me until you convince me or my descendants that you want to go... It only took me a few seconds to completely charge you, and you have shadow level chakra reserves... At least you should, you were a shadow after all."

"In terms of chakra, I was actually the weakest of the kages. I was known for being incredibly fast and for my sealing skills. Most other shadows are ninjutsu specialists. In fact, most of the jounin had more chakra than me, but what I had I used so well that no one could stop me with raw power."

"But, you were supposed to be the strongest of the shadows," Naruto sighed.

"If you were looking for the strongest, you should have looked at the lightning shadows. They were always the strongest," he replied cheekily.

"So... If this one is you, who was the other soul?" Naruto asked nervously.

"You'll just have to find out, won't you. I am sure they'll be excited to see you again after so long."

* * *

Naruto and Laura regained consciousness on his bed, still holding hands. Naruto had a contented smile on his face, glad that he had finally met his father.

"You weren't supposed to be using any chakra," Laura pointed out.

"Is genjutsu. All in head. No real chakra except chakra taken by this," Naruto explained, releasing her hand and holding up the necklace.

"That is why you spoke in English?"

"No real speaking. Is thinking of speaking and you is thinking of hearing and is understanding. Is seeming real, but I is hearing you is speaking my words. Is why I can talk to demon when demon is fox. I can no talk fox language. Is also fast," Naruto said as he nodded towards the clock. Less than five minutes had passed since they had woken up and only a fraction of a second of that had been passed within his father's jewel.

"You said your father was a strong warrior. Tell me about him," Laura requested.

"Second Hokage was brother of First Hokage. Third Hokage was student of Second Hokage. Third Hokage trained three legendary shinobi: Jiraiya, Tsunade the Fifth Hokage and granddaughter of First Hokage, and Orochimaru. Jiraiya was the sensei for my father's genin team. He took him for his student and my father learned sealing and summoning. Then my father created rasengan. Third shinobi war began. He became jounin and had own genin team. One mission, he alone killed one third of Iwa nin using hiraishin jutsu. Konoha began to win war and he became hero. War ended and he was made hokage. All is good until Kyuubi attack. No one can harm Kyuubi. Much of Konoha is destroyed. Many dead. Then he arrive and gives life to defeat Kyuubi."

"Ready to see who is in the other?"

Naruto nods nervously, then smiles when Laura holds out her hand. They clasp the red bead between them. Laura Squeezes Naruto's hand encouragingly as he focuses.

* * *

Naruto barely has time to register that he is in a pink room when he is swept up by a red haired woman and wrapped into a hug.

"My little Naru-chan is all grown up," the woman sniffed, "I wish I could have been there to see it."

"I guess that means that you're my mom? Dad didn't really tell me anything about you when I talked to him."

"That's right. My name is Kushina Uzumaki. I wish we had more time together, I could tell you all about the Uzumaki clan." She glanced at the other occupant of the room who was watching.

"Oh, I guess I should introduce you. First, she is not Kyuubi. This is Laura, and she's a human, nothing demonic about her at all."

"Oh! So that's what's going on is it?" Kushina giggled. She looked Laura over carefully, causing the girl to blush lightly under the scrutiny. Without warning, Kushina lashed out with a punch. Laura leapt back, unsheathing her claws. Kushina grabbed the girl by the wrist and began inspecting the claws. "Are these some sort of blood line?"

"My father has three claws on each hand. I have two on each hand and one on each foot. The claws are actually made of bone, but all my bones have been coated with metal as have my fathers and Naruto's due to experiments performed on us. We both have an advanced healing factor. It is likely that offspring will have similar enhancements."

"It will probably work well with the Uzumaki longevity. I approve. Naruto, make sure you take care of her." Kushina gave her son a smile and a thumbs up. "I'll even teach you the secret family ramen recipe," She added to Laura.

"Is it as good as Ichiraku's?" Naruto asked.

"Ichiraku was only second best because they were trying to match the secret Uzumaki family recipe," Kushina boasted proudly, "It was a decent substitute when I was too lazy to cook. So how far along are you two in your relationship? Can I expect grandchildren soon?"

Laura blushed and looked away.

"MOM! We've only known each other for a few months!" Naruto complained.

"Yes, and I am sure you'll get over your embarrassment in time. Now, shoo for a bit, I need to talk to your girlfriend for a while."

"But, we haven't done anything like that. I'm not a pervert!" Naruto cringed, awaiting the blow his well honed Sakura influenced reflexes assured him was coming. When no blow was forthcoming, he opened his eyes to see Kushina and Laura off in the distance conversing quietly.

Naruto watched as his mother's conversation seemed to bring attention to Laura's hips and bust much too often. With the chances of him returning to the elemental nations essentially zero, and he wasn't even sure he would want to anymore, he couldn't help but compare Laura to Sakura. Laura was twitchy when startled, but always stopped herself from hitting him unless they were sparring. She actually seemed concerned about his well being, having stayed by his side while he was out. Very few had taken the trouble to so much as drop him off at the hospital so that others could take care of him, and certainly never an attractive girl. Naruto blushed. He realized that even now his physical body was holding hands with her. He remembered seeing her body and holding her after he had freed her from the tank. Suddenly a lot of the things she had said to him were beginning to seem a lot less innocent. The most recent 'Not in front of your father' comment sprang to mind, his face rapidly flushing as he looked at her... Her face was oddly close to his. Naruto quickly turned away to find his mother standing next to him and grinning.

"Laura has told me everything that has happened. Since this isn't a one time deal, you should visit me every day. Your father and I can train you, we were pretty strong ninja after all."

Naruto nodded.

"I can teach you some blade skills. I wasn't known as the Red Death for nothing. I also am pretty handy at water techniques. Of course, I have to teach you the Uzumaki sealing style. You wouldn't be a real Uzumaki without it. It the reason the Whirlpool Village was destroyed after all. Your dad can cover all the boring theory stuff. And, if you have the right chakra for it, I can teach you how to use chakra chains. I was even able to hold down the fox with them."

Naruto grinned happily. "I'll definitely visit you both every day."

"I will come as well, and perhaps have my father speak with you both one day," Laura added.

"Just remember everything we talked about," Kushina said.

Laura nodded.

* * *

Naruto's head was throbbing a bit when he returned. He supposed the hyper-time awareness of mental interactions put a strain on the mind, much like his father warned him that the kage bunshin would. He noticed that he was still holding Laura's hand. After the last visit, this was too much for him. He blushed and pulled his hand away, taking the necklace and fastening it around his neck in the process.

They sat there for a few awkward moments before Laura suggested that they head to the Xavier Institute and work on his hand to hand skills.


	8. 1-8 Doomed Mission

**Arc 1 - A New World - Chapter 8: Doomed Mission**

* * *

The next two weeks were fairly uneventful. A few times per day, Naruto would visit his parents and learn taijutsu or sealing from them. Sometimes Laura would go with him, but he found that it strained his mind to bring more people in so he could only visit once if she came, but could visit three or four times if he went alone. Occasionally, Dr. Strange would visit his parents as well, but Dr. Strange could use his own abilities to talk with them and didn't need to rely on Naruto to ferry him.

No work had yet been done to work on fixing Naruto's summoning. The Sorcerer Supreme had been kept far too busy with his own duties to even consider looking at helping Naruto repair this skill, and his father was unable to help in his current form. Naruto had offered to help Dr. Strange by taking some of the easier jobs off of his hands, but the Sorcerer Supreme had refused stating that it was too dangerous until the new filter was added.

The one thing that Naruto had spent a long time talking to Dr. Strange about was his seal and the new filter. He was rather upset that his mind looked like a sewer and wanted to change it to something more pleasant. He thought that the Kyuubi would like the same chance. This had resulted in Dr. Strange entering his father's crystal for a full five seconds of real time before saying that he would consider the request.

Now, after two weeks of idle chakra, Naruto had finally been given permission to work on chakra control exercises and chakra flow meditation to help the seal settle faster. To this end, he and Laura spent their days at the Xavier Institute. Naruto would walk on water, climb trees, or try to split leaves with his chakra. This last exercise was what was traditionally used as the first step in wind manipulation training. It was a good place to train because no one though he was strange for doing any of these things. It also gave Laura more time with her father.

* * *

Naruto held the phone. It felt strange having technology being so pervasive. People relied on it so much, but a single paper bomb could bring many of these so-called indispensable services to their knees. Perhaps that was why the Elemental nations were so far behind in some ways. No technology became widespread unless it was either repairable or replaceable in the field. The very notion of needing a large bureaucracy and miles of sensitive equipment working to do a task you could accomplish as easily by crossing a street just didn't make sense. But then, the Elemental Nations were much more insular than any nation on this world. The ability to communicate instantly between villages would be too much of a security risk to allow, even if the technology was available. In fact, it wouldn't surprise him if the technology had been sitting around in a cupboard somewhere for years because it was too much of a security risk to implement.

Naruto put the receiver to his head as he had seen Dr. Strange and Laura do on multiple occasions. "Hello. This is Naruto Uzumaki."

"Hello, Naruto, this is Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's assistant. Are you interested in doing some security work?"

"Can Laura come?" Naruto asked.

"What is her skill set?" Pepper asked.

"Expert with hand to hand, weapons, and at least basic knowledge of most transportation. Has adamantium claws and skeleton and heals really fast."

"Is that the name of the X-23 you referred to in your earlier meetings with Tony?" Pepper asked.

"Yes. She has a name now."

"The pay is the same regardless of who you bring to help. Unless you arrange otherwise, the pay will be split equally among your team."

"That is fine. What is the mission?" Naruto asked.

"A armored vehicle will pick you up at the Sanctum Sanctorum. You will inspect the vehicle for any tracking chips, explosives, or other hidden surprises. The only thing in the truck should be the driver who will be wearing a uniform bearing a Stark Industries logo. He will have a Stark Industries sidearm with a grip authentication safety lock. If he does not have this sidearm, or the weapon does not acknowledge him, or there are additional people or devices, you are to capture and await instruction. If everything is as it should be, the driver will take you to the Baxter Building. Here you will receive a delivery of a crate of body armor from Reed Richards. He is a man who has the ability to stretch his body. He may have the help of a woman who can turn invisible and project force fields, a man who can set himself on fire, and a man made of living orange rock. The crate will be placed in the secure area of the armored transport. You will escort it to the delivery entrance in the back of Stark Tower where you will receive further instruction."

"Hai! We'll be waiting!" Naruto hung up and went to look for Laura.

* * *

A boxy delivery van arrived in front of the Sanctum Sanctorum where Naruto and Laura were waiting. Laura immediately went to work inspecting the vehicle since she had known what to look for. Naruto knocked on the driver's door.

"Please open the doors so we can conduct a security inspection," Naruto said. The door opened and Naruto saw that the cabin was empty except for a middle-aged man in a Stark Industries Uniform. The cabin was free of everything else. It was very professional. "Can you demonstrate that your sidearm acknowledges you as its owner?"

"Sure," the man drew his weapon. It was obviously a standard identification method. When he held it and placed his finder on the trigger, a small red light turned green.

"That's all that happens?" Naruto asked, "Does it at least do something if someone else holds it?"

"If someone else holds it, the light stays red. If they pull the trigger, they get a little electric shock, the gun disables itself permanently, and a distress signal is sent. Our weapons can't be used against us."

Naruto chuckled and drew his knife. "He didn't put that feature in mine."

This caused the driver to laugh. Naruto went around to the other side and climbed into the passenger side. Laura squeezed in next to him. There was no reason for one of them to ride in the back when there wasn't any cargo. The driver pulled out and made his way onto West 12th Street which he followed to 6th Avenue. He turned right on West 42nd Street and pulled to a stop in front of a building at the intersection with Madison Avenue.

"First stop Baxter Building," the driver announced.

Naruto and Laura hopped out of the vehicle and entered the lobby to find a lanky brown haired man with a crate waiting for them.

"Are you Reed Richards?" Naruto asked.

"That I am. I assume you are Naruto and Laura." The man looked at them and smiled before reaching across the room to shake their hands. It was really a little unnerving and reminded Naruto of Misumi from the chunin exam preliminaries. "I've been expecting you. This crate contains some sample configurations of a new form of body armor for civilian responders, that is police officers and fire fighters, that should be lighter, more malleable, and better fitting than the current Kevlar armor and be more effective at the same time."

The scientist's elucidations were interrupted by an explosion that destroyed the entrance to the building. A group of robots that looked almost like hovering garbage cans with protruding appendages swarmed into the building. They each began firing laser blasts that left gouges in the floors and walls.

"These robots appear to be consistent in design with the technology of Dr. Doom," Reed Richards announced as his body weaved around the laser blasts, heading to a control panel.

Naruto popped out his blade and formed a mass of shadow clones as he and Laura began to counter attack. He had never failed to protect his target on an escort mission before and he had no intention of starting now. Only Naruto's ability to match the massive number of robots with his clones kept them from being immediately outmaneuvered and overrun. He knew he was probably going to get a talking to from Dr. Strange after his mission though. He was not supposed to use large amounts of chakra. He was now producing clones in waves of hundreds which actually put a small drain on his incredible chakra reserves. There seemed to be no end to the robots, despite the fact that Laura's claws and his dagger could cut through them easily.

"The building's systems were hacked. All defenses are disabled. I need a few minutes to get them back online!" Reed called.

"Longer you take, the more things will break!" Naruto called back, destroying another robot before being surprised by a laser blast to the face from a robot that had shadowed the one he had just taken down.

Naruto scrambled to his feet and wiped the blood from his eyes as he slammed his weapon down into the head of the machine.

"They're going for the target!" Laura shouted. She was surrounded and couldn't extricate herself in time.

Naruto formed a clone to throw him over the wall of robots and onto the crate. He formed several hardened clones that used rasengans to rip through the converging robots. Their numbers were dropping quickly now.

Naruto heard a strange humming sound. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good. He looked around. One robot had its chest plating open and a glow of energy was building up. Then it released in a massive cracking beam of power that vaporized the robots surrounding Laura. He could see most of Laura's adamantium skeleton exposed. What little flesh remained was blackened and charred. She lay on the ground, limp and unmoving.

"Laura!" Naruto called out. Her body was grabbed by some of the remaining robots that flew off into the sky faster than he could hope to follow. "LAURA!" Angry red chakra flared around him. The nearby robots were blasted away by the sheer force of his presence. He reached out with a claw of chakra and grabbed the robot that had blasted Laura. He squeezed the robot until it was nothing more than a charred husk of metal. He threw the remains through three other robots, causing an explosion that sent robot parts flying.

Too late, the automated defenses came back online. Weapon turrets quickly disabled the remaining doom bots, but Laura was already gone.

Naruto went to Reed and looked him in the eye. Naruto's eyes were red and slitted. "Where did they take her?" He demanded.

"Probably to the Latverian Embassy. That is where Dr. Doom usually operates from. I'll assemble my team, then we will go rescue her."

* * *

Naruto was seated on the bottom of the Fantasticar. It had taken a little convincing to allow him to be seated here, but it allowed a tactical advantage, and he really did not feel like talking to anyone right now. Someone had taken one of his precious people and that was unacceptable. There would be consequences.

The embassy was patrolled by security robots. Some were similar to those that attacked the Baxter Building. Some took a more humanoid appearance. A clear bubble of power was created around the vehicle by Susan Storm. It protected the vehicle from the attacks of the robots as it flew over the embassy. It did not protect the embassy from Naruto dropping off the bottom of the Fantasticar. He formed hundreds of clones which formed oodama rasengans that bombarded the embassy and the grounds as they landed. While this distracted the guards, the Fantastic Four searched for a place to land.

Just before Naruto would land, he formed one more clone which threw him through an upper level window of the embassy, allowing him to avoid being caught up in the massive explosion occurring outside. Looking out, he could see Johnny Storm flame on and begin picking off the surviving robots.

Naruto formed a small army of clones, sending them out to explore the embassy. Using rasengans, they tore apart every wall, every ceiling, every door, every stone. Within an hour, all that was left above the ground was rubble and a stone stairwell leading down into the ground.

Naruto and the Fantastic Four congregated at the entrance of the subterranean lair as Naruto's clones pour down the hole.

"You really did a number on the building," Johnny Storm said with an appreciative whistle.

"Those who hurt my precious people will get torn apart. This building was just in the way," Naruto said coldly. "There were many booby traps but I've triggered them all. The target is at the bottom."

* * *

The room had high arched ceilings with stone columns. The floors were tiled in patterns with natural stone. A dais at the front of the room had a throne that was large enough for a giant but was seating an ordinary sized man wearing metal armor and a green cloak. Before him is a metal table that was riveted into the ground. Laura lay tightly shackled to it with her limbs pulled tight. Every movement brought her pain as electricity coursed through her body.

"Let Laura go!" Naruto demanded.

Dr. Doom chuckled as if humoring a belligerent child. "Dear boy, after all the damage you've caused for me, you expect me to listen to your demands? No. You have cost me too much, and I will take my payment from her flesh!" He pressed a button on his throne and Laura screamed. "Now, I would have you leave. You are trespassing." Hidden doors along the walls opened up and more robots appeared. These ones had electricity crackling around them, forming a spherical shield.

His father had told him about the strength and weaknesses of the elements. Electricity was essentially a form of lightning chakra, so Naruto knew that it should be beaten by his wind clones. He formed half a dozen and sent them towards the shielded sentries. Unfortunately, these robots were much more organized in their firing patterns. All of the wind clones were destroyed much too early and Naruto had to shield his group with hardened clones which took a big toll on his chakra.

"You really should release the girl, Victor. You don't want to make this kid any more angry," Reed cautioned. "I've seen first hand what he does when he is angry."

Victor Von Doom laughed. "There is no reason to listen to what you say. There is no way you can stop me!" The robots began aggressively firing at them.

Johnny took to the air and bathed the robots in flames, but they seemed to slide over the shields instead of penetrating them.

"You're fighting back. Naughty, naughty." He pressed a button and held it. Laura screamed, and screamed as her body convulsed. Her skin began to blacken, blister, and split.

"I'm going to be nice, just this once. You can die fast, or you can die slow," Naruto growled. His nails and teeth sharpened as his eyes turned red.

"I will not be the one dying today," Dr. Doom replied as he increased the current until Naruto could actually see Laura's skeleton glowing through her flesh.

Two tails of power burst from Naruto's back. In an instant a chakra claw whipped out and crushed half the robots against the wall as he leapt across the room in an instant and slammed his claws through Dr. Doom's gut. He was surprised when Dr. Doom exploded, revealing himself to be just another robot.

Johnny and Susan took down the remaining robots fairly quickly while Reed freed Laura from the electrocution table.

"Fascinating. Your healing factor is incredible. Imagine how much medical science could learn by studying the way your body reacts to negative stimuli," Reed said as he watched her body restore itself before his eyes.

Laura merely groaned in response as her skin and muscles repaired themselves.

"Ahh, why won't it stop?" Naruto grunted in pain as a third tail of red chakra began to form behind him. As much as he pushed, the chakra refused to be forced back into the seal. He collapsed and grasped his stomach in pain as more and more wisps of demonic power forced themselves out.

Laura, seeing his predicament, struggled to her feet and hobbled over to him. With a sudden twist, her knee struck him in a precise spot in the back of his neck and his face slammed into the floor. He was knocked unconscious from the blow. The red cloak of chakra soon dissipated.

"If that hadn't worked, we would be in trouble now. He should be fine when he wakes up," Laura said. She winced as she tried to put her weight on her leg. It was not healing as rapidly as the rest of her wounds.

* * *

Naruto regained consciousness to a feeling of swaying in a hammock that appeared to be moving up stairs. He opened his eyes to see Mr. Fantastic's neck and head extending out of the hammock and looking down on him. He screamed in shock and leapt upwards to cling to the ceiling.

Naruto realized that the hammock was actually Reed Richard's torso as the man restored his body to its normal form. It had been stretched out into a hammock to carry him since he had been unconscious and he was too heavy for any one of them to carry on their own. Naruto decided to stay on the ceiling rather than get too close to the stretchy man again. Something about him was just too weird.

Realizing that there might be more to this lair hidden behind the stone, Naruto formed as many wind clones as he could and gave them his entire roll of explosive notes. He hoped that when the explosions went off, the wind from the clones would fuel the explosions since wind chakra increased the power of fire chakra, even though the explosions didn't really use fire chakra.

The four reached the surface and boarded the Fantasticar, taking immediately to the air and clearing Latverian air space.

Naruto pointed to the remains of the embassy. "Watch the boom," he said with a giggle. With a loud 'FWUMP!' the entire area where the embassy once stood raised up and a shock wave shook the Fantasticar. The dirt settled into a crater with a 'Thud' and sent out a wave of dust in all directions. Naruto grinned, proud of his work. Now only a crater with a few protruding stones indicated anything had ever been built there.

"Remind me never to piss you off little dude," Johnny Storm said.

Naruto grinned.

* * *

Back at the Baxter Building, The Thing was waiting by the armored delivery vehicle, talking with the driver while they awaited the return of the protection detail. He had not come on the mission because they had needed room for the two extra passengers and his spot fit the best. The Fantasticar dropped dropped Naruto and Laura next to the already loaded truck.

"Can you call Tony and tell him why we're late?" Naruto asked Reed.

The stretchy man gave an affirmative response before taking the vehicle up to park it back on the thirty-fifth floor. Naruto put a clone into the passenger seat of the cab, then he and Laura climbed into the back with the cargo and closed the door.

* * *

Tony was really getting his money's worth out of him. Naruto had a group of clones carry the crate out of the freight elevator, down the hall, and into a lab. On one side was a table covered in weapons and equipment that separated the room in two halves. The other half seemed to be shielded and had targets marked on the far walls.

"The tactical armor in the crate was created using a combination of three different technologies. The first is the unstable molecule technology created by Reed Richards. This can be used to make materials that can adapt to almost any environment. They resist heat, cold, electricity, and are form fitting which means one size fits all. It also allows for a limited amount of self repair. The second is a standard nano-mesh weave inside the layers of unstable molecules. This will stop or deflect most bladed weapons wider than a few microns, like a super light suit of tight chain mail. The final piece of this armor are bands of Stark Nanotek plating. The plating will provide protection from heavy impacts, bullets. Normally it is lighter and more flexible than Kevlar plating, but it stiffens in reaction to any force. Your job will be to create clones and have them wear the vests and test them for any problems with mobility or if you feel there is a spot left without protection that should be protected and for how comfortable they feel. Once that is done, your girlfriend and I will get the pleasure of testing all these weapons on you in an attempt to find flaws in the armor. But, there's no need to worry, You would heal from any of these in a few minutes, even without the armor."

"I really should be getting paid more for this," Naruto complained as he created the requested clones.

"Your English has improved a lot in a month," Tony pointed out, "Since you now have the ability to complain about pay."

"I learned that I learn what my clones learn, so I spent a week sending a few hundred out into the city with orders to do nothing but find people to talk to. You'd be amazed at how much old people can talk once they find someone willing to talk to them."

Tony chuckled.

"So how many jobs until I can get a second special kunai?" Naruto asked.

"If you did jobs like this every day for a year, you might be able to afford one if I paid for the adamantium," Tony said, "That stuff is expensive to manufacture and the vibranium needed to make it is expensive in the first place. I've already got a full set of normal equipment prepared as part of your payment for this job. That is much cheaper since it is just high iron steel."

"I have a kenjutsu teacher now, so I could also use a sword," Naruto mentioned.

"Then, you'd better start working a lot," Tony grabbed a gun off the table and shot a clone in the vest, "Unless you want something simple." The clone staggered back, but was otherwise unharmed.

* * *

Naruto was standing still while his father and Dr. Strange were discussing the problem he had with the seal during the mission and what could have caused the seal to become unstable and not allow him to stop using the fox's chakra. This was of course after they had spent quite a bit of time lecturing him about being irresponsible and reckless and disobeying the rules that he had been given for both his safety and the safety of the people around him.

After a lengthy discussion, they concluded that the seal had loosened while it had been in flux and removing Minato and Kushina had damaged the lock so that it always remained a little more open than Naruto wanted and it would continue to loosen every time Naruto used the fox's chakra until they could fix the seal.

"Because you used the demon's power, you decreased the stability of the seal. It will be more time before we can repair it and place the filter. I'm going to have to ask you not to use any jutsu unless it is an emergency until the seal stabilizes."

"But you are allowed chakra control exercises," Minato said, "Especially chakra flow meditation. If you can perfect your chakra flow, the seal should follow."


	9. 1-9 SHIELD

**Arc 1 - A New World - Chapter 9: S.H.I.E.L.D**

* * *

It was three days since he was originally supposed to have had the filter added to the seal. It was still too unstable to attempt the modification without risking his life or the escape of the Kyuubi. Naruto was sitting cross legged in an arm chair attempting to meditate. He was supposed to control the flow of chakra and release it from each of his three-hundred-sixty-one tenketsu one at a time until he had done them all. Once he was done that, he was meant to flow chakra out one tenketsu and into another until he could move it anywhere around his body in this way. It was a chakra control exercise invented by the Hyuuga clan. It was extremely difficult for anyone without the byakugan since they could not see their own tenketsu.

Naruto was having trouble with this exercise that was mastered by all Hyuuga by the time they were five, not only because he had so much trouble focusing his large volume of chakra, but because he was distracted by Laura watching him to make sure he didn't do anything he wasn't supposed to. With the seal loosening, Dr. Strange wanted it fixed as soon as possible.

Naruto cracked his eyes open to see Laura lying sideways over the arms of a chair. She arched her back to stretch, her claws popping out with their distinctive 'snikt' sound. Naruto gave up meditating.

"You want to go out and do something?" Naruto offered.

"Okay," she agreed, allowing herself to slide over the arm of the chair until her fingers touched the ground, then flipped up onto her feet.

The two of them headed out and began walking around town, looking for something to do. They end up passing through one of the city's parks. Naruto blushes and grins happily when Laura imitates one of the couples she sees and takes his hand as they walk.

The pleasant time is suddenly disturbed as Laura rips her hand away. "I hear an alarm!" she announces.

"Lets go then," Naruto said. If it was just common criminals, he could stop them using taijutsu alone. A little excitement after a few boring weeks couldn't hurt.

Laura began to run across the park and Naruto followed. Soon he could hear the high pitched ring as well. A block away, they came upon a jewelery store where a group of masked men with guns were smashing glass cases and stuffing the contents into sacks. A man with a strangely flat topped head wearing a blue pinstriped suit was apparently the leader.

"We gatta be outta here in two minutes or the coppers will be on our tails. Hurry it up!" The man yelled.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Hammerhead!" one of the masked men replied as he grabbed a diamond necklace.

"You want flat top or the minions?" Naruto asked.

"You can take the leader. You shouldn't need chakra for only one opponent," Laura answered, releasing her claws. The two rushed into the store and attacked in tandem.

"Yo, dumbass! I don't think a tiara is gonna fit on your ugly mug!" Naruto shouted as he smashed his fist into Hammerhead's skull with a resounding clang.

Laura began to dismember his followers, sending limbs flying.

"What the hell is your head made of?" Naruto asked, shaking his hand which was still vibrating from the impact.

"My noggin is made of adamantium. You aren't going to be cracking my skull," the mobster replied with a smug grin.

Naruto began to laugh. "What a coincidence, so is mine, and hers. Half the world's adamantium is probably in this room right now."

Laura ignored the bullets flying into her. Her skeleton would protect her from the most severe damage and there wasn't enough room to dodge in such a confined area. Most of her wounds healed in seconds.

Hammerhead equipped some brass knuckles. "If you want ta play, then let's play, kid," the mobster took a swing. Naruto dodged. This man obviously relied on his bulk and hard head to get him through fights. Naruto grabbed the man by the lapels and gave him a massive headbutt, sending him staggering back. The criminal stumbled for a moment before Naruto gave him an uppercut that shattered his jaw and put him down for the count.

A man with a sub-machine gun was the last one left and was firing at Laura from close range. She spun around and decapitated the man with a kick. The man's body fell towards her, spraying her with blood.

Naruto looked at Laura, grimacing at the amount of gore that covered her. "I think we need to go home and get cleaned up," he suggested.

Laura flicked a gob of meat off of her arm. "This is disgusting," Laura agreed. As they turned to leave, they found themselves facing a squad of police officers with drawn weapons.

"Put your hands behind your heads and surrender peacefully," once of the police officers called out.

"We stopped the burglars," Naruto pointed out.

"You are at the scene of a crime and covered in blood. You will surrender or we will be forced to detain you by any force necessary."

Naruto sighed and did as he had been told, putting his hands behind his head. Laura, however, released one of her claws, causing all of the officers to tense. Then, she stabbed the claw into her abdomen and began rooting around before flicking a bloody mass onto the pavement with a clink.

One of the officers moved forward to inspect it. "It's a bullet," he announced.

"It wasn't coming out. I didn't want it to heal over in there," Laura answered the unasked question. Naruto could never understand how she could stand doing that type of thing to herself, no matter how necessary it was. Admittedly, he often got hurt much worse because of the backlash of techniques he had used, but there was just something visceral about digging around in your own guts that seemed wrong. The police seemed to be of the same opinion as none of them seemed to be particularly eager to come forward to handcuff them.

"A few of them are still alive, but they are all in pretty bad shape. It's Hammerhead and his crew," one of the officers reported.

"You two need to come to the station and give a report," the officer in charge told them, "I am not even going to pretend that a pair of hand cuffs is going to slow down people who can do that, so can you agree to come quietly?"

"Can I get a shower and a change of clothes?" Laura asked.

The officer looked at her. "I'm sure that can be arranged. In fact, we'll insist on it."

Some garbage bags were taken from the trunk of one of the squad cars and laid on the back seats so they wouldn't get all covered in blood. Naruto and Laura got into the car as an officer lead a man out of the store.

"We found the owner and the security recordings in the back," the officer said, leading the man to another car.

* * *

Naruto was having a terrible time filling out the paperwork they had given him. The report section itself was easy enough, though he was sure his grammar and spelling would give someone a headache later. His clones had practiced verbal English, not written. It was all the other information that they asked for that was causing him problems. He didn't have a social insurance number nor a citizenship card. The calendar in the elemental nations was different than this world, so his birthday did not fit in the space provided. He managed to fill in his parents names and contact info for the Sanctum Sanctorum at least.

By the time he had finished what he considered to be a woefully inadequate piece of paperwork for a mission report, Laura returned from her shower wearing a pair of NYPD branded sweat pants and T-shirt. Her own wet clothes were balled up in a plastic bag.

Naruto watched as she filled in her own police report. She paused on the section about parents since they were technically minors and after a moment filled in Not Applicable for the field of mother. Their answers would probably make their reports impossible to file electronically.

The officer who had brought them in was watching a copy of the surveillance footage of the incident. He seemed mesmerized by the carnage. Bullets just didn't have the same visual impact that Laura's claws did.

"We're done!" Naruto called out, beckoning the officer over.

"Okay, then, let me check them over then." The man came over and accepted the reports. "Neither of you know your social insurance numbers?"

"Don't have one," Naruto answered, "I'm from another dimension."

"I'm a partial clone. I was never officially born," Laura gave her own excuse.

The officer swore. "This is above my pay grade. I'm going to have to bring in the captain, and he's probably going to have to call in some agencies to try and make you legal or at least get you known to the appropriate agencies."

"Not like we have much of a choice. Government would realize we exist eventually since we're not trying to hide."

"That's a good attitude to take. Trying to hide makes them thing you have something to hide." The officer got up and headed to the office at the back of the building. A few minutes later, he came back with a middle-aged man who was overweight and had premature wrinkles from stress.

"So... You stopped a robbery rather violently. You did not harm any civilians or police officers and cooperated when asked, but there are issues with your paperwork that we aren't equipped to handle. Have I accurately summarized the situation?"

The two teens nodded.

"Who is currently responsible for you? Since you are minors, by law you must be staying with a so-called responsible adult."

"I am being supervised by Dr. Strange. We both live with him," Naruto answered.

The captain grunted. "Makes sense. That is his field. And you?"

"Though I also live with Dr Strange, I suppose my legal guardian would be Jim Logan, also known as Wolverine of the X-Men. His DNA was used to create me."

"Call them both. Inform them of what they were involved in and that we are going to be contacting the appropriate people."

* * *

A hover vehicle landed in the no parking zone in front of the police station. It looked like a cross between a futuristic motorbike with its sleek arcing cockpit and a jet with the spherical twin turbines mounts two thirds of the way along the hull.

The side flipped up and a man stepped out. He was dark skinned with his head shaved completely bald except for a neatly trimmed goatee. One eye was covered by a black eye patch. He wore a bandolier with various pouches attached to it and a pistol at his hip. On the chest of his blue uniform, emblazoned in white, were the letters 'S.H.I.E.L.D'. The man walked into the police station as if he owned the place. The officers moved out of the way, unconsciously submitting to the command presence of an obvious superior. His eye narrowed and scanned the precinct before landing on Naruto and Laura.

The man walked over and looked at the officer who had been supervising them. "Tape." It is a command and it is obeyed. The video cart with the equipment is moved closer and plugged in so that the man can watch. There is silence as the black and white soundless images flow on the screen. "You were both holding back a lot," he said with conviction.

"Only until the seal stabilizes. It is too dangerous now," Naruto replied.

The man scrutinized him for a moment.

"How dangerous?"

"Dr. Strange would rather banish me to a hell dimension than risk it."

"So, end of the world dangerous."

"Don't need jutsu to beat street thugs though, and Dr. Strange will fix the seal soon and the risk will be gone," Naruto explained.

The man nodded then turned to the officer. "I need the tape."

The officer went to take it from the VCR.

"The original," the S.H.I.E.L.D agent interrupted. The officer scurried off and returned a minute later with the requested item. "You two will come with me."

"Who are you, exactly?" Naruto asked.

"Nick Fury, Director of the Strategic Homeland Intelligence Enforcement and Logistics Division, otherwise known as S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Is this real?" Naruto asked.

"It is one of the organizations included in my programming," Laura said.

"He's real," the officer said, "You're lucky you get to meet him."

Naruto and Laura followed Fury to the hover vehicle.

* * *

Nick Fury flew the craft through a thick bank of clouds and Naruto could not help but be impressed by what he saw. There was a massive ship hovering in the air. On its deck were dozens of flying craft much larger than the small vehicle they currently inhabited. The entire thing was held aloft with a series of gigantic turbines. Fury dipped the craft they were in below the level of the primary deck and landed on a secondary deck that acted as a hangar and took up a large area at the front of the ship just below the primary deck.

"Follow me," Fury instructed. He lead them through the halls of the ship and into an elevator. Every person they passed stopped to salute him. He ignored them all as if his time was too valuable to be wasted on pleasantries.

The floor that the elevator let them out on did not have the same utilitarian metal plating for decor as the hangar deck had. This one had painted walls with false wood paneling and a thin but serviceable carpet. In other words, it wasn't opulent, but it was close enough for government work. They were lead to a conference room where an agent was already waiting with two folders and a stack of paperwork. No effort was made to hide the cameras recording all events occurring in the room.

Nick Fury sat at the head of the table and waited for them to be seated before gesturing for the other agent to begin.

"I am Special Agent Phil Coulson. You can understand that Commander Fury's position is not one that leaves him with the freedom to attend to everything and everyone himself. My primary role is as one of his assistants and as a liaison to those with advanced capabilities. If you ever see Commander Fury again, then something really bad has probably happened either by you, to you, or can be fixed by you. He does like to know who is out there that might be a threat which is why he meets each and every person of interest that might become an issue. For any other dealings with S.H.I.E.L.D, you will most likely be dealing with me or, considering why you came on to our radar, one of the field teams. Now, this meeting can end up going many ways. Some end up with all of us happy. Some end up with fewer of us leaving this room. There are sensors monitoring your vital signs as well as expert psychoanalysts looking for any signs of deception. If we even get a hint that you might be attacking, this entire room will be flooded with a cocktail of sleeping gasses. We are being honest with you, because we want you to be just as honest with us. Do you understand?"

"Is very nice compared to Konoha interrogation," Naruto said, "If you don't harm us, I won't harm you. I will answer any question that is general or personal knowledge from my world or about my experiences in this one. I will not give away strategies, protocols, or other military secrets of Konoha."

"And should you come across similar secrets of ours I hope you will keep them in the strictest confidence," Nick Fury interjected.

"If you are planning to harm civilians, I will do what I must to stop you, even if that is revealing your secrets," Naruto said.

"And you?" Nick asked Laura.

"I have no secrets to share. I will agree to whatever Naruto decides. He has more experience with people," Laura replied immediately.

Nick Fury began writing down quite a bit more than what they had said.

"Okay, then, we'll start with you," Agent Coulson said, "Can you give us a basic outline of the governing and military structures of your world?"

"They are known as the elemental nations. Each is named after an aspect of their resources or terrain. Each is ruled by a Daimyo. There are currently five great nations and many minor nations. The five great nations are Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Lightning. I was born in Fire Country. The Daimyo position of Fire Country has passed along the male line of the family for over three hundred years now. Other daimyos have had shorter or longer lines. A daimyo receives wealth through the work of his own lands, as well as taxes on the people living in his country. The wealth is used to fund the government and military structures of the country. The daimyo assigns local shoguns to ensure that laws are followed in smaller areas since one man can not oversee such a large area. For some larger cities, a local militia is formed and financed to deal with criminal activities. For larger issues, there are two major military assets that the people or the daimyo can call upon. The first are the samurai. These are men drafted and honor bound to fight for the good of their country and life of their daimyo. They deal with securing the daimyo's holdings, civilian uprisings, keeping the main roads safe, and as a military force if the country is ever attacked. They are effective against other samurai and civilians and are useful for maintaining order. The other branch of the military is the shinobi forces. We are an autonomous village within a country. We do not pay taxes, but we receive funding from the daimyo in return for performing missions for him and preventing others shinobi villages from working against him. The shinobi aren't under the command of the daimyo, but we require his funding and goodwill to maintain our village and he requires our power to maintain his standing. It is a mutually beneficial arrangement. Shinobi are mercenaries. We do anything from delivering groceries to assassinations. At my level, I was mostly doing escort missions, bandit elimination, and retrieval missions. Each ninja village is lead by a kage with a council of advisers. They manage the village and assign missions."

"And do your people have a way of entering our world?"

"The method I arrived here was a reaction to me attempting to escape something that was meant to kill me. They all think I am dead and will not try to reproduce it. If they try, there are perhaps five other people with the capability of surviving, assuming they are still alive, and there is no guarantee that this is the dimension they would end up."

"And can you describe how this technique worked?"

"I was sealed in a pocket dimension which was then cut off from reality. Without an anchor, it began to break apart and everything inside began to cease to exist. I threw all my energy at the collapsing space and managed to create a hole and fell through into this world."

"Could you give us a demonstration of your abilities?" Agent Coulson asked.

"Not right now," Naruto answered, "I have a demon sealed in my gut, and Dr. Strange is making alterations to my seal to make it safer, but using my abilities now would be dangerous. I can describe them for you if you insist."

"Describe them then," Agent Coulson said.

"My abilities are similar to mystical abilities you have here. I use chakra, a combination of physical and spiritual energy to do various things. Mystical abilities from your world only seem to use spiritual energy. Tony Stark was rather interested when I could do 'magic' that would show up on his sensors. My techniques currently include the ability to replace myself with an object to avoid damage, disguise myself, stick to objects, create a destructive orb of energy, and create physical copies of myself. I am also able to create beginner level mystic seals such as a simple containment seal and an explosive seal by drawing out specific patterns with special ink or blood and activating them with my chakra. I can learn new techniques or improve upon the techniques I know with training. I am fairly accurate with thrown weapons and have okay hand to hand combat skills. I heal extremely quickly and my bones are coated with adamantium."

"Adamantium?" Fury asked.

"True adamantium," Naruto specified. Tony had given him a brief synopsis of the cheaper alternatives that some called adamantium. "I appeared as Wolverine was escaping the men who put the adamantium in him. They felt that I was an adequate replacement subject and I was in no condition to argue."

"And that is how you met Laura?"

"The first thing I remember is Naruto holding me after he pulled me from my storage tank. He had been in another storage tank, but had adapted to the drugs and escaped. We were the only two surviving specimens. We overpowered some guards and Naruto turned the facility into a large explosive as we escaped. I had knowledge of this world implanted into my mind, as well as several languages. I began teaching him English and he helped us survive in the wild. Eventually a man calling himself Sabretooth came claiming that he would be given an adamantium skeleton if he retrieved us. We were unable to overpower him by normal means."

"I used the power of my demon. Wounds caused by the demonic power did not heal and Sabretooth fled," Naruto interjected his own addition to the fight, "Dr. Strange detected the use of so much demonic energy and collected us and began to teach us how to live in this world."

"Did you lie about any of the information you provided to the police?" Coulson asked.

Naruto glared at him.

"No, it was all accurate to the best of our knowledge," Laura answered.

"Would you be willing to work for S.H.I.E.L.D?" Fury asked.

Naruto looked to Laura for her opinion. She shrugged.

"We mean no offense, but we have offered you a great deal of trust by being so honest about our abilities since you seem to be a legitimate agency of the government. However, we have never even heard of you before today. We do not know enough about you to sign up for anything permanent. If you have jobs where our skills would be beneficial, we will be willing to work any jobs that seem to be legitimate on a mercenary basis. We already do such missions for Stark Enterprises. If you are aware of the destruction of the Latverian embassy, that was a result of Dr. Doom attacking a shipment of technology we were hired to guard. He then temporarily disabled my partner with an extremely powerful weapon, took her there captive, and tortured her. It makes me upset when people harm those precious to me." Naruto's monotone voice sounded like he was was simply making a report, but the raised eyebrows of the S.H.I.E.L.D personnel showed that they had received the warning loud and clear.

"I want a full report of that incident," Fury said, "this could cause international incidents both ways." He did not seem too upset about the event.

Naruto nodded. As Fury was scribbling his fifth sheet of notes.

"These are the identities you will use as American citizens," Coulsen said, pushing two envelopes across the table. "Since our calendar systems do not align, we are working on the assumption that as of your next birthday, you will each be sixteen years old. You are listed as being partially emancipated minors under the joint custody of Dr. Strange and Wolverine. Should there be a time where you are deemed unfit to make your own decisions, they will be called in to do so for you. Since neither of you attended a normal school, it is expected that you study on your own time and take a high school equivalency test to earn your general education diplomas by the end of your eighteenth year to prove you are capable of surviving in this world. Further education is up to your discretion. There is a contact number there is there is an issue with your identities, or if using your powers causes you to end up in jail. I suggest you memorize it."

"Considering you were picked up for vigilantism, I expect you will continue to stick your noses into places where they don't belong. Just know that if civilians die or are maimed because of your actions, you will be held responsible. If you use your abilities to commit crimes, those papers you are holding will cease to be real and you will find yourself locked away in one of those prisons where the prisoners have no rights and are never heard from again. Are we understood?"

Naruto and Laura nodded.

"Good. Coulson, take them home once they fill out full written reports on everything. Don't miss a single detail."

Fury strode out of the room.

* * *

It was finally time. Naruto had been completely stripped, then painted up with blood and ink until his body was a mass of runes and lines. These were mostly to keep the current seal safe while the new one was integrated. Some of them would temporarily put the fox into a dormant state. It wouldn't last more than a few hours, but it was enough for the ritual.

Naruto lay in the middle of a large sealing array. It mirrored his own seal somewhat with its eight pillars. At the head of each of each of these pillars was a glowing crystal, imbued with the energy of the element represented by the pillar. Two large circles intersected the pillars. Each with a gate that would suck neutral chakra through, and a small hole where chakra be inserted into it and forcefully ejected away from the gate so it wouldn't be sucked back in. In the middle was a complex diagram that Naruto didn't even begin to understand other than the fact that it was a filter that neutralized any energy that passed through it. The most impressive part of the seal was the fact that the inner gate and half the seal were made with demon blood rather than human or animal, which meant that pushing demonic power into it would only make the seal stronger and the filter would keep the chakra from degrading the human part nor the other way around.

Dr. Strange began the ritual. Laura was not watching this one. It was too delicate to allow any outside interference, presence, or even will. It was dangerous enough that Dr. Strange himself had to be present for the delicate operation, to have any other presence would have been near suicidal.

Layers of ink began to slither up Naruto's body, creating a temporary barrier as his seal began to unfurl into the air. Rings of symbols crawled up onto Naruto's body and weave themselves into the seal. Naruto was surprised there was no pain other than the burning associated with the high density of chakra in the sealing symbols. Eight long lines of symbols weave into the matrix, binding it together. There is a flash of light and Naruto feels like he has been punched in the stomach as the glow from the eight crystals abruptly disappears and Dr. Strange finishes.

"It is done. Once you feel it calm, you are free to use chakra in any responsible manner."

Naruto grinned, then abruptly covered himself and blushed as Laura opened the door.

"I am glad it went well," Laura said. She held out a pair of pants, then watched him change instead of turning around. He had long since stopped bothering to try and convince her that she needed to since his arguments fell on deaf ears. "Your seal is visible," Laura said.

Naruto looked at his stomach. His seal looked very much the same as it usually did when he was channeling chakra. "That's strange. It doesn't look any different, except that it's visible when I am not using chakra."

"Try channeling chakra then," Dr. Strange suggested, "I am sure you will find something new."

Naruto focused his chakra and what appeared to be another inverted eight symbols seal appeared around the inner one.

"That is the outer gate. It draws neutral chakra into your chakra coils and that break is where you can push chakra through it. It is only active when you use chakra. This other one is the inner gate. Since the demon is an entity of pure chakra, it is always using chakra, and therefore the seal is always active and since it is isolated from you, it no longer depends on your chakra to appear. It acts the same as the outer ring but in reverse. The empty space in the middle contains the filter. It only becomes active when one of you passes chakra to the other so it will never be visible for long." Dr. Strange explained, "You should probably visit your tenant and explain his new contract soon."

"Hai!" Naruto agreed, "But first a shower." There was more than enough left over blood from the seals to leave him slightly nauseated. The demon blood especially had an odd smell that he didn't find all that pleasant, but Laura was eying him like a piece of meat and her nose was twitching. He did not want to find out of demon blood turned people with enhanced senses into cannibals.

* * *

Naruto entered the familiar dripping sewer terrain. For once, there was no red glow or growling to lead the way, but he had made the trek enough times that he knew the way to the chamber. The prison room had definitely changed. Rather than one gate there were three and Naruto wasn't big enough to slip through the bars on his side, nor were the Kyuubi's claws long enough to reach him. They were well and truly separated from each other.

"What have you done, you insolent monkey!" The fox was obviously not happy about the new arrangement.

"I would think you would be happy. You may be in a cage, but you have been freed," Naruto said. He knew this would just piss the fox off. He was right. The demon snarled and raged, but was overall impotent. "That isn't very nice. I didn't have to give you freedom when I received freedom. I chose to give you a gift and you get angry."

"What have you DONE!" Kyuubi roared.

"Our wills are separate. I control what is on my side of the gate," Naruto said, concentrating hard on turning his side into a replica of training ground three in Konoha. Kyuubi's remained a sewer. "You control what is on yours. So why do you choose to live in a sewer?"

Kyuubi snarled at him, but his scenery did change, but it was to a formless inky blackness.

"We should each have full control of our own minds now, but our lives are still linked," Naruto said, "Neither of us can influence the other." He began examining some trees that he did not seem to be able to alter, at least not more than aesthetically. He reasoned that they must represent some part of himself.

"You are a representation of your consciousness. Whatever controls you controls your body. Those trees were the pipes that used to decorate this sewer. They were your chakra. Controlling the pipes controlled your chakra. There are other chambers containing memories and emotions and personality that represent your mind. The foundation it is all built upon is your body."

"Why are you telling me this?" Naruto asked.

"If you die, I die. I no longer have control, therefore you must control yourself. I always had just a little bit of control of everything. Not enough for you to notice, but enough to keep us alive. I made sure that lethal wounds were healed first. If you concentrate, you can feel your body, then direct your chakra and use your body's natural healing to repair the damage."

Naruto sat next to the tree and meditated, feeling out the lingering pain from the sealing. He could feel it. His eyes cracked open for a second and saw the anticipatory grin of the fox and knew there was something not right about this. He felt out the pain more and recognized it as the shape of the seal. The fox was trying to trick him into making his body reject the seal. Two could play at that game. Rather than tell his body to reject the cause of the pain, Naruto told his body, "this is a part of me, become one with it." To his surprise, it worked. His chakra instantly integrated with the seal and he healed.

"You give some good advice. It is a shame it is mixed with deceit," Naruto said.

"Either I was free, or I live longer because my container was stronger. There was no downside for me," Kyuubi said.

Naruto noticed that one of the roots of the tree reached into the gate. He sent a small pulse of chakra along it and sees a small puff of white chakra appear and be absorbed into Kyuubi.

"This is a rather ingenious trick that was done. You should congratulate the one who modified the seal."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"If I were ever to lend you all my chakra, even for a short time, I would stop being a demon until I converted enough hatred into chakra again, assuming I still had that ability."

"If you were no longer a demon, then what would you be?" Naruto asked.

"Who knows. A celestial being perhaps?" Kyuubi suggested with a snicker, "But you need not worry, I wouldn't lose my winning personality, I would just have a different set of abilities. I would never allow that to happen of course. There is no reason for you to ever need all of my power, and I can always give you the same chakra you give back. There should not be any being that should require more than half my chakra to defeat. And, since you have given me a portion of your own chakra, I now have a small amount of yin chakra. With only yang chakra I couldn't regenerate my chakra, so now, I will return to my former strength as well. Your father did one thing right in sealing my yin chakra into the stomach of the shinigami. Eventually, that seal of his would have drained me dry. Now that won't be an issue." The Kyuubi laughed madly, sending its tails thrashing wildly behind him. "One day I will escape and this world will see what a true demon can do."

Naruto left to return to the real world. As far as he was concerned, the Kyuubi would never be going anywhere ever again.

* * *

**ARC 1 END**


End file.
